today is not yesterday

My friend John took his five lines up a hill and played a sculpting with nature game with them. what fun can you, we all of us have today five our five lines?


today is not yesterday

and yet
we sometimes
act as if it is

how can that change?

well,
i've talked enough about now

so
let's talk again about 108 ways
in 108 days

what shall it be today?

Sensing
of our spine
two legs
and two arms

as an ongoing game

nothing
new
there

except where are YOUR arms
and legs
and spine
and
smile

right now

oh, gad,
back to now


we'll times could be said to be "hard"
here
if I bothered to believe
various stories
that my mind likes to recycle over and over

and sensing two legs
two arms
and a spine

and a
smile

makes those stories
as small
and unreal
as they
really
smally

are


or should I say:
are not

in a new place, it is tempting

La Peña cafe and meeting space

in a new place it is tempting
to cut back on
the efforts/ intentions/ joys
of consciously staying awake

this is partly because the
new place slightly
or largely wakes us up with its
new sights and sounds and patterns

and our disruption
of our routines
nudges us closer to awake

and yet
awake
is really awake

too fun
to skip

even in a new
place

which is???
Now it's Berkeley


Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore

a sweet and amazing city, even if i've
only gotten to wander in a small edge of it

all on foot

good

soft stomach, open heart, curiosity

loving what is:
the key to
changing
and to
being content,
change or no change


soft belly,
breathe easy,
be present:

in moving
and learning to be at ease
as we reach
and twist
and balance
and move in various directions:
keeping the head and neck free
keeping the stomach soft,
keeping the breathing easy,
being curious:
how could I make this a little easier,
how could I be a little more aware
how could I be a little more kind to myself
how could I allow the various parts of me to help with the whole of me

all this:
good

and when
a so called
"trouble" happens in our life

say
a beautiful partner
wishes to be on her own
and the "end" is what is
coming

again:
keeping the breathing
and the thinking soft:
no enemies
no blames
not even regrets

what has been wonderful:
good
what has been less than wonderful:
good, what can I learn from that

what mistakes have I made?
good:
softly examine,
no self hatred
how could I have been less about me
and more about her
curious:
what can I learn about
how to love
better

and when she was less than wonderful:
good,
what can I learn about being kind
to
a person
who is in a troubled place

as Jesus says,
anyone can love someone who's treating
you all peaches and cream
and
then
when you want to really learn about love,
love the one who is giving you a hard time

and now:
not to give me
a hard
time
or her

and the open heart:
how can I love
change
that my "mind"
"doesn't want"
how can I love
life
when it is
(as it always is)
out of my control

and the Neurological Upgrading Work?
ah,
soft belly,
stay in the present,
curious:
what can be just a little better
now
and
then
now
and
then
now


good,

lot's of learning
and loving possible

if I am to live happily
in what is supposed
to be an unhappy
time

Water, Sky, Ease, Summer almost Gone

people in
water

clothes on
clothes off

hot day
cool water
blue sky

ease
life

summer
at
its
best

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.

Learning and Knowing

LEARNING AND KNOWING
One of the great joys in life is learning something new. The brain gets excited, the heart get happy, our whole life gets stimulated, we feel more alive and free and fresh.

And one of the great tragedies in life is that so often we are so stuck in Knowing, that we have no room left over for Learning.

You've all head the story, the great student who goes to the Master and says, "I go to all these teachers, and they tell me stuff, but I don't seem to be making any progress." The Master orders a glass of water, an already full glass, and then she begins to pour water in, pour and pour. The Great Student yells, "Stop," what are you doing? The Master says, "Teaching you is like filling this glass: no room for anything else.

This often happens when people are introduced to Feldenkrais Work or the Byron Katie work. Instead of going inside and sensing and learning what that can be learning new, they shift it into something they already know: this is just like what I do in …..(yoga, my stretch exercises, something someone taught once in college gymnastics, NVC, 12 steps).

So now they are protected from learning. This is nothing new. They already know everything. The glass is full. No need to waste time on any exploration or discovery, and so they can zoom off and keep doing the same old things they've always been doing.

One minor problem: no learning and thus none of the joy and delight from opening up and becoming new as our life becomes new.

The Meaning of Life

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?
Is it true life has a meaning?

I don't know.

Can I absolutely know life has a meaning?

No.

How do I react when I rigidly attach to the thought: "life should have a meaning?"

Worried, annoyed with those who don't get "the" (= my) meaning, rating myself as to living up the "the" (=my) meaning, anxious.

Who would I be without the story: "life should have a meaning?"

Curious.

Alive.

Wondering.

Grateful.

Meaning to discover the meaning for myself, in each moment.


The turn around: Life has no meaning.

Better: thoughts about the meaning of life lead to no meaning, or less under standing of the real meaning.

Life is.

What a gift, eh?

(If this seems a "strange" line of questioning, please enjoy TheWork.com for a brilliant pathway out of emotional bondage and suffering.

Ciao,
Chris

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