Dear Yogis,

We are starting work again.  For the past 7 or 8 weeks we have trusted that all will be well. We didn’t decide to hide away, it was decided for us.  To remain positive, we have been working towards the next phase of our life with anticipation, but opening the door to “the everyday” is a dangerous step. The path as we know only too well, is fraught with temptations and frustrations.  Our life going forward will be very much more complex, and without spontaneous human contact for the foreseeable future.  When we move to hug, or shake hands, there will always be that nagging health question causing us to turn away, hang back and be suspicious.  We will be living close to the terrible for the sake of the wonderful.

When the restrictions are lifted, once again we will be able to feel that we are in control.  Once again people will seek us out, not because of who we are, but because of what we have.  As a young man, the travelling minister (and founder of what would become  the Wesleyan Missions), John Wesley calculated that twenty eight pounds a year was enough to take care of his needs.  Since prices generally remained the same in those times, he was able to keep more or less at that level of expenditure throughout his lifetime.  It seems unbelievable to us.  Later in his life he made fourteen hundred pounds a year from the sale of his books, but he still lived on the twenty eight pounds and gave the rest away.  Of course, he was a single man with no children so he didn’t have to deal with “domestica”, however the idea is a sound one.

Consider this.  You have come through a COVID time of economy, a time of less. Are there are ways that you could remain close to the amount you have been earning over this time.. Are there ways you could simplify your lifestyle so you could live, let’s say, on half what you would in good times ordinarily make?

The Grace of giving with all its difficulties is a a happy ministry.  When money is not in the picture and only the love of others motivates our service it changes everything.  So much good can be done, so many lives changed.

Until we can we learn to live in simplicity, we will find it hard to believe it is possible.  To begin, find creative ways to get in touch with the earth.  Listen to the wind and the birds, walk whenever you can, grow flowers or plant trees and discover once again “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”. Learn to enjoy things without the need to own them. Learn to share and develop the habit of homemade celebrations. Invite the neighbours to join you.  Go gently when you do – how can you enjoy people if you are always trying to impress them.

In the “Covid Break” we have learned that there are things we can do together that we cannot do alone.  At our best we are dependent and responsive to one another.  We need each other’s help in order to know how to love God.  We need each other’s help in order to know how best to love our neighbour.  “Lone Ranger” community is a contradiction in terms.

See you at Yoga.

Live simply, Laugh and be happy.  NAMASTE JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

Yesterday I sat on a wall with a friend and drank tea in the sunshine (within the required distance of course). She is quite political, and brought to my attention the violence, misery and injustice in the world.  She didn’t need to.   These pictures are brought to us every day.  I become overwhelmed with the immensity of the problem, and I am not sure how I should respond in the moment to people who are talking but are doing little, and really are not listening.

I believe that  although it is unsettling, we should not close our ears to the cries of others and leave these issues to others that relieve us of any responsibility.  What is the world like?  We are split between the fat, prosperous affluent and the weak and hungry poor, and this gap is widening.  Because we yogis understand the central issue in all these problems is spiritual and moral, we have an advantage.  we are not distracted and can speak to the issue of GREED.  When we confront political issues, policy makers or corporate executives, we do so with an inner strength borne of yoga,  yamas, meditation and simplicity.

It would not be helpful to go around reminding our neighbours of the yamas they are flouting.  As much is accomplished in a yoga class or especially a teacher training session,  as we do my pushing our politicians’ heads into the mud.  To know that we are dealing with primarily what is a spiritual reality gives a clue to the strategy we could use.  When we confront evil we do so in a power drawn from a Divine source.

We must approach these issues with humility, because these are issues on which even the most pious among us has differing views.  This should not keep us from addressing the issues in our own special way, but it should keep us from arrogance.

Simplicity frees us from the modern mania to acquire more.  It brings sanity to our compulsive extravagance, and peace to our frantic spirit.  With simplicity we can live lives of integrity in the midst of the terrible realities of this GLOBAL VILLAGE.

We should keep this in mind going forward with COVID.

It has come into our lives for a reason, and we must learn from it.

I miss you and will See you soon.

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

Here we are, almost at the end of our Covid Homestay.  I wonder as you look back whether you will regret losing the opportunity for solitude.

Simplicity, which we have been thinking about through the whole of this experience – exemplified in the Bible, (The “lillies of the field”), is dependent on solitude. Being a slave to the opinions of others is the cause of many wrongs in this materialistic society.  How often have you discovered your actions to be initiated not by your heart centred connection, but by what others may think of you.  Sadly, all too often we must admit that our responses are generated by our need for approval from others.  We  need to know they don’t think badly of us – whatever that means.

This problem rears its ugly head even more violently when we attempt to live a simpler lifestyle.  Before the isolation we where held to ransom by the need to look affluent, now, to fit in with the rest of our neighbours, we need to look “less”.  Perhaps we think if we can diminish our needs somewhat, and look like that is what we are doing, then perhaps others will think we are living more simply .   Doing the “right thing”.

Sadly this too can backfire.  We KNOW we are too dependent on the approval of others.  At the heart of it we want to do what is right, but our distorted sense of self betrays (even just to ourselves) our lack of true simplicity.  This inward struggle proves the observation of the philosopher Francois Fenelon “These people are sincere, but they are not “simple”).  THE GRACE OF SOLITUDE (and it is a GRACE), must be deeply rooted, must be a PART OF US if we are to know simplicity of heart.

For 7 almost 8 weeks we have been living an artificial isolation.  We didn’t ask for it, and we didn’t set the rules.  Maybe we have been fighting against it the whole time, wishing, wanting, waiting for it to be lifted.  Marking time without a plan.   Living close to God through any experience –  happy, sad, or isolated – wherever we find ourselves, is seamless;  and that one-pointedness Buddha spoke of,  is the essence of simplicity and the cause of complexity.

I would like to bring you a word of encouragement.  This sense of overwhelm at the immensity of the task is the first step, the first requirement for entering the grace of simplicity.  “Do what you can, WHERE YOU ARE…with what you have”, once again the words of the Buddha. Those who don’t know what they have, and don’t know where they are, and always want more than what they have today, thinking it will solve the first two requirements.  Those who rush at it don’t find simplicity – they find arrogance, and dissatisfaction (suffering).

Simplicity is much more tangled when we are continuously thinking about doing it,  than it is in practice. As with any yogic path, it is better to practice it than to define it. It is interesting how that plays out in yoga teacher training.  Those who are most eloquent and voluptuous in their presentations on paper, often struggle with the reality of “just doing” without the need to impress or direct.   Simplicity of living is not about quantity – it is about quality – about “doing”, about RIGHT living.  The complexity and simplicity of the YAMAS is key.  Our present century longs for the authenticity of simplicity .

May we all be a model of that kind of authentic living.

 

PS.  I do want to encourage you to sign up to my YOGA classes NOW.  Some classes are full, and you need to register. No casuals, no walk ins, and only 3 per class at the moment..  Look at “Classes” above to sign up for times etc.  If you want a Tarot/TeaLeaf reading, please email in the first instance and book ahead. yogafirst2@bigpond.com

Have a lovely, happy SIMPLE day.  Take time to just SIT.

Namaste.  Jahne.