PEACE LOVE YOGA: A Portrait

Burnt To Ash

"All Inquiry is meant for one purpose; to take you experientially into the unknown as efficiently as possible. Once you get there, simply be still because inquiry has delivered you to its destination. The rest is up to Grace. Do not hold onto any knowledge that comes your way. Even the greatest revelations much not be clung to, or you will end up with a head full of memories and a heart empty of substance. The truth is ever new, existing only in the now. The highest truth is beyond knowledge and experience. It is beyond time and space, and beyond beingness, consciousness, and oneness. Just remember that all direct path techniques are meant simply to undermine, to cut away, the one who is performing them. No matter what spiritual path you've walked or what teachings you've followed, they must lead you back to no path and no teaching. A true teaching is like a blazing fire that consumes the itself. The teaching must not only consume you, but consume itself as well. All must be burned to ash, and then the ash must be burned. The, and only then, is the Ultimate realized. True Enlightenment destroys enlightenment. As long as you can refer back to yourself and say, 'I'm enlightened', you not. Enlightenment is authentic only when there is no one left to be enlightened. Even to say 'I am nobody', is one too many. There's a point when you intuitively realize that to be Free you have to give up your attachment to Freedom. You have to quit asking yourself: Is it still there? Am I okay? You have to decide to never look over your shoulder again to see if you're free or if others know you're free. You just have to let yourself burn there - no matter what. This isn't something I can help you with. I can tell you what you need to do, but you have to do it. In the beginning, teachers can help a lot. But the deeper you go, all they can do is point, and clarify, and tell you what you need to do. Only you can take this step. Nobody can push you in to this place."

- Adyashanti

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."

- Louise Erdrich

No Expectations

A spirit that lives in this world

and does not wear the shirt of love,

such an existence is a deep disgrace.

Be foolishly in love,

because love is all there is.

There is no way into presence

except through a love exchange.

If someone asks, But what is love?

answer, Dissolving the will.

True freedom comes to those

who have escaped the questions

of freewill and fate.

Love is an emperor.

The two worlds play across him.

He barely notices their tumbling game.

Love and lover live in eternity.

Other desires are substitutes

for that way of being.

How long do you lay embracing a corpse?

Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.

Anything born in spring dies in the fall,

but love is not seasonal.

With wine pressed from grapes,

expect a hangover.

But this love path has no expectations.

You are uneasy riding the body?

Dismount. Travel lighter.

Wings will be given.

Be clear like a mirror

reflecting nothing.

Be clean of pictures and the worry

that comes with images.

Gaze into what is not ashamed

or afraid of any truth.

Contain all human faces in your own

without any judgement of them.

Be pure emptiness.

What is inside that? you ask.

Silence is all I can say.

Lovers have some secrets

that they keep.

(Rumi)

A Portrait

30.8.10

Celebrating my birthday last Saturday, one of my gifts included the inspirational book, Guruji: A Portrait of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Through the Eyes of His Students (Thanks DF). I've known about it for some time and had been looking forward to it's release, and let me tell you, it was well worth the wait. I'm hanging onto every word like a life raft - loving every story told in the book.

Though my time with Guruji was brief, I can identify with how life changing being in his presence was. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who is connected to the practice of Ashtanga yoga in any way. It's amazing how alive he's living in all of our hearts. Through his tireless energy and devotion, and of course his passion for yoga, he touched the world with love and enthusiasm.

In this book you'll intimately experience all that he gave.

Thank you Guy Donahaye, and Eddie Stern for compiling the stories.

Thank you Guruji. ♥

3 Insightful Comments:

Louise said...: I'm also reading this at the moment and savouring every word. I know I'll read it more than once but the first time is so sweet. A brilliantly inspired compilation of experiences with a very brilliantly lit human being.
{*}; August 31, 2010 at 8:32 PM
Boodiba said...: It's a beautiful book. I think every astangi should read it!

Oddly it's inspired me to work a lot less hard. It's funny. It's helping me realize more why I practice, what's important and what's not.; September 2, 2010 at 12:33 AM
peaceloveyoga said...: I totally agree Boodiba, every ashtangi should read it!; September 2, 2010 at 9:37 AM

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PEACE LOVE YOGA

R. Sharath Jois

Burnt To Ash

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A Portrait

30.8.10

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