Dear Yogis,

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday, we at Teacher Training did.  I hope you can be at the next one.   It was a great class.  I did have a bad hair day – don’t often have those, might cut it off.  At present, there is no colour so I could donate it to charity.  A good use for hair.  I don’t know why colour should make a difference – but it does.

Anyway, we discussed seeds.  A good place to go because it takes in so much of what we do, what we don’t want to do, and what we hope for.  In the newsletters a week or so back we did discuss this, so dig in.

Today we are still speaking about the warrior.  We have thought about Tonglen meditation and if we all maintain the sincere motivation of wanting to take away the pains of others, in fact all living beings (including the covid virus), and providing every single living creature with their  fondest wishes and ultimate happiness, then according to the Buddhist teachers, learn to personally escape this life of suffering, ageing and death.

When we hurt another being we could not have hurt them unless they had an imprint (a seed0 in their mind that would force them to see themselves being hurt.  This would have been planted when they hurt someone in the past.

If they didn’t have this implant, this seed, then you could not have hurt them.  Nothing depended on the action – everything depended on the implant or seed.

Take for instance your acts of charity.  Any particular persons experience of poverty is the direct result of their own lack of charity, and cannot be changed unless they learn to give.  That does not mean we should do nothing.  Our own experience of giving, the intention to give, needs to be exercised for any being to experience  this expression of giving in action.  Confusing and seemingly contradictory, but not, when you think deeply enough.  Giving is the way of the warrior.  The second perfection is to live a wholly ethical life (following the yamas is the key) meaning not giving harm to any fellow creatures.

An important way is to not give in to anger when anger surfaces, at that moment when anger blazes.  There are layers of things that during the day upset us to a greater or lesser extent.  It appears to be an endless obstacle course.  As we discussed today, see them as opportunities, like the Ballet Dancer marooned in Death Valley.  Build an opera house,  live the dream. Dance your dream to reality.

I am yoga’ing a dream into reality,  We are doing our yoga, filling every class (hooray).  There are only three per class so it is easy to fill.  If you are coming look at the web site, if you decide on a class ring to discuss availability,  please bring ALL YOUR PROPS.  Disinfect them before you bring them back.

Once you have booked your space and paid, as it says on the web page, it is your space.  If you don’t come it’s your space and you have paid for it.    Like Zoom if you pay for classes and don’t take them, do you get your money back? Can you take another class free?  I don’t think so. I am like that, except I have not got 2 million people taking classes!  They could give you a freebie without feeling the pinch BUT THEY DON’T.

Please respond, please give me feedback otherwise it seems as if all these words go into the void.  That is OK of course.  I have said I will do this, and I do – my seeds are right and correctly planted.  The imprint is OK.  That is the only important thing.  But I am directing it to you – and you are not replying.  I am inviting you to the table, and you are not responding.  It is like asking a friend to morning coffee, and she doesn’t reply, she doesn’t come.  I am asking you to the blog.  Please come, please reply. It is about the seeds you are planting.

Have a lovely day.

NAMASTE  JAHNE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*YOGA CLASS NOTES.  PLEASE READ!!!

PS:  Remember it is Queens Birthday Weekend. No Yoga, but I will be working through the school hols which are not long away.  Look at the Web Site for class times nearer the date.

TEACHER TRAINING: Yes it is on tomorrow, Sunday (Studio, 2pm to 4pm), but if you have any hesitation about your health, If you are headachy, sore or have a cough (you know the drill) , or if your job takes you into an atmosphere of unhealthy uncaring people (or if you have been in a crowded cafe/shop, or protest march,  in the last few days), please stay home this time as we have people here who are immune compromised.  The virus lives with you – with all of us – from now on , respect it and respect others.  

If you are coming, please email me if you haven’t already, I have to know how many to expect, and who is coming.

 

 

Dear Yogis (shoppers),

Shoppers?  You haven’t settled because you are looking for a “passion”, something that makes sense and is easy.  This is neither…passionate or easy,  EVER!     As I have said before, my teacher began my formal studies in meditation by alerting me to the fact this this path of study was not for the faint hearted.  This was tough stuff – suitable to be undertaken only by a warrior.  I didn’t understand it then – I do now.

In meditation, trying to remove the pain of the future self, inevitably means addressing the pain of the past and the present.  This seems to be an easy thing until you understand how much of your life is spent in denial, and blocking out the awareness of the dreadful futility of most of the things that clutter up our days.

When you have begun address your pain, the idea is that as part of your service you begin to take on the pain of others…Not just in a casual way in passing, but as a serious exercise.   We tend to dismiss the pains and discomfort of others, particularly those of older years because at some level we know in due course we will be like them.   Then sincerely motivated to remove the pain of others, and sending every living being, every single creature the wish that they might achieve their ultimate happiness,  you could (if all we are taught is true), actually learn to escape our ever encroaching ageing and death.

In doing Tonglen, the ultimate giving and taking meditation all day everyday,  then we begin to act in a different way.  We begin to act out our meditation, helping others before they know they need help and certainly before they have asked for it.  Finding ways to please the unpleaseable.  What happens then is that they begin to see you differently, and begin to look for ways to repay you for your acts of kindness and you will begin to wonder why you hadn’t acted this way in the beginning.  What was it that stopped you?

Maybe you haven’t been a Warrior.  A Warrior acts in the ways of perfections – the deeds that make you perfect.

My Raven is helping me in my quest to be a Warrior.  I believe that only a Warrior could feed a bird perfectly, and I am learning. Only a Warrior could understand that giving bread to a bird can be a perfection, knowing that the act will create paradise for the one who gives perfectly.  How do we give perfectly? Only if the heart is right can we give with perfection.  When you are in that mind, you give the best you have, whatever is the most desired.  Giving with wisdom as the bird does to me.

The highest gift we can give is the gift of understanding what it is that has created this world, and how we can turn it into a world of bliss, rather than what we have now which is a world of loss and pain.

My Raven gives perfectly the best he has.  He gives me crumpets and cakes in the winter, moss in the coldest months, and twigs when spring is on the way.  He gives me the best of what he has… to let me know what he believes I need.  Shares his crumpets and cake when the weather is cold. The best and greenest moss? – I obviously need the medicinal qualities when even he doesn’t know he needs it, but craves it, and twigs to help me nest.  The difference in our size and the fact he is a bird and I am not,  has not made any difference to him.  He still gives me the best he has.

It seems hard.  However, you have no reason to hesitate, no reason to be discouraged or to doubt.  Behind you and gone forever is only death.  Behind you is only an accumulation of pain and suffering.  You are now a yogi.  You are on the right way .. run towards it.

ENJOY THE SUNSHINE TODAY – 

NAMASTE Jahne

Dear Yogis,

We all ask ourselves – whoever brought me here.  You are not the first to ask.

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I’ll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I’m like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I’m going to say.
I don’t plan it.
When I’m outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.      By Rumi

We all ask ourselves the question which has no answer “why am I here”….Rumi was no different – more eloquent of course, but no different.  He was closer to God and therefore closer to the answer, and we can be there.

All we have to do is to sit, and He will come.  We can strive, we can give, we can DO and DO and DO and be no closer to the truth.  When we stop and take time to hear the still small voice, we then have a chance to answer the question.  Covid is continuing to give you this opportunity.  Whether you take it, is entirely up to you.  You can long for the future when you are free, but I say you are free now, in this very minute, but you don’t know you are, and haven’t been grateful for this wonderful opportunity that has presented itself to you.  We don’t know when it will come again, so live every minute of it with gratitude.  It is wonderful.

I hope to share A couple of hours of Sunday with you – Teacher Training (and The Tarot Course on Saturday).  Bring your mind as well as your body.

LOVE AND BLESSINGS.

NAMASTE.  Jahne