The Blame Game: The Greatest Obstacle to Your Intuition is...You

I woke up this morning with a particular radiant smile in my consciousness. Spending 10 years living in a spiritual community gave me the opportunity to meet many Masters and beautiful people who have committed themselves to this path of awakening that I call Beloved Yoga. Every path invariably involves cultivating a deep sense of self-love and self-acceptance. This process brings us to a unique balance of spontaneous creative living and applied intellect through a lens of compassion. Of the many Masters that touched my heart one of the most profound was Byron Katie.

Many years ago she came and did a small workshop from the living room of our home. We had done many but none attracted the crowd of people this one did. Not only was it the most people we who had come to our community for a workshop of this kind but they were not the typical spiritual seeker. These people were not particularly drawn to yoga or meditation or any specific form of contemplative or spiritual practice. These folks were hard-working "regular people" (mostly women, of course) who had recognized for one reason or another that they needed some support on this journey towards being happy.

I watched as Byron Katie shared her profound interpretation of self-inquiry called The Work. I'll never forget that experience, how simply and elegantly she applied her massive psychospiritual depth to the challenges of everyday life. "Ask four questions and turn it around." I can still here her axiom ringing in my ears. She held such a profound presence that you felt as though you were in her embrace from the moment your eyes fell on her. She called everyone "angel" in such an authentic way that you knew she was addressing each person's inherent radiance unmoved by the shadows of fear and unworthiness each of us clung to.

Byron Katie is a spiritual innovator who can help usher in the end of the Blame Game as we learn to take responsibility for everything we think and feel in our lives. This is the first in a new blog series I will be writing where we will embrace The Work and conquer our greatest barrier to intuitive living, us. Our reactive nature, the story we tell ourselves, in short the blame game robs us of the creativity, simplicity and joy that is our birthright. For today, pay attention to your story, observe your reaction and rather than being an active participant in the blame game become part of the audience. The best is yet to come!

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta

Discrimination

Hello All,

On this blustery day in Yarmouth my attention is drawn towards the classical teachings of yoga. The two wings that carry the yogi beyond the suffering of the world are detachment (vairagya) and discrimination (viveka). Discrimination refers to the discrimination between the real and the unreal, the impermanent and the permanent. A practical place to start may be the way we constantly pull the past into our present situations. For example, begin to notice how your mind tends to drudge up past emotional situations in fresh new moments.

You may be enjoying your day and then you see someone who you may feel has wronged you and you remember the emotions of that moment and now you are back in the past. This is not real. You are not responding to the person and moment at present but are living in memory and fantasy.

To learn to discriminate we must learn to become rooted in the present moment and observe the antics of the mind-body system. See how gracefully the leaves die and fall from the tree? There is no resistance only beauty and simplicity. Permanence is that eternal part of yourself that is the subject of all religions. Look to that part of yourself and reinforce your faith. Faith is like the sword of discrimination. Have faith in kindness, have faith in love, have faith in simplicity. The ancient word for faith meant "connection to life itself". Use that as your starting point for discrimination. Never mistake discrimination for judgement. Discrimination is an internal process and judgement is another name for the blame game.

See you in the morning at the Boathouse...8:45am. You can do it, you are amazing!

Namaste,

Jayanta