Contentment,,,,,, Satosha

Here we are studying all sorts of things.

Part of the study is
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras,
short verses
that explain
a life that will lead to spiritual advancement
and ultimately liberation.

Whatever that is.

Let's start with the doable:
Loving What Is.

Santosha
is the Niyama
that says: cultivate contentment.

Which is nice,
as in being happy
when things go our way.
Most of us can do that.

And be happy when things
don't go our way.

And how to do that.
Well, it should be no suprise
to anyone who has read in here,
I'd suggest
the The Work of Byron Katie
a gal who Woke Up
in the desert town of Barstow, California,
with no spiritual practice
but only a deep wish to die.
She was an alcoholic, obese, chainsmoking,
depressed and raging.
So she had reason to want all that to die.

And one day it did
and she was left with nothing.
Only bliss.
People had to explain that she had a name,
that she was a woman, that she was a wife,
a mother.
For awhile they had to pin her name to
here when she'd go wandering around,
because she had no identification with that.

And her
gift?>

Well, she discovered, brief moments of unbliss would
arise,
always from a thought,
and that by following this path,
she'd be back in bliss

Judge Your Neighbor
Write it Down
Ask four Questions
Turn it around.

When discontent,
write down
the "should" or the "shouldn't"
that you are throwing away your joy for.
Do the four questions.
Find the turn around.

Where are the four questions?
See once more,
if you wish
The Work of Byron Katie
(and Katie never wants anyone to
do her work unless they want to,
never prizes anyone more for doing it
than rejecting it)

And if you aren't more content
do the work
again
on your annoyance that it didn't happen
instantly
or do the work more deeply.

It works
if we do.

Ciao
Chris

Happy Monday

One way of looking at yoga is as a chance to return to a
connection to our bodies,
to an enjoyment of moving in precise
and conscious way.

Another way of looking at yoga is as a chance to
slow down the rush of the world and
come inward with our attention and energy
and thus recharge ourselves.

Another way of looking at yoga,
is as a chance to become that which
we are at our core:
stillness
that is as vast as the universe.

Thus the second sutra of Patanjali:
yogas chitta vritti narodah:
Yoga is the stilling of the whirlpools of our feeling driven thoughts.

As if coming to the center, the eye of the huricance,
yoga can,
sometimes,
bring us to a stillness and peace
that is truly who we are.

And, as those who've read these remarks
over the years know,
the Work of Byron Katie
is another path
to still the rushing of thoughts
thoughts that lead us to suffering.

And the Feldenkrais Way
in a strange and beautiful way,
can lead us back to the glory
of awarenss and learning
as pathways to the Bigger Self that is
down there
inside our little self,
waiting to be discovered.