CASTLE Principles: Love

Hello All,

Well the next step on our Conscious Leadership ladder is Love. It just so happens that today has been a contemplation of the Joy of Love in my own personal practice (related to a series of Mother Teresa prayers a good friend gave me, thank you). We have all heard so much about love and yet it is also full of attachment, conditioning and misunderstanding. One thing we can all agree on is that love is expansive. The experience of love is the opposite of contraction and tension. We often associate love with the pain of losing but the truth is that in the face of love there is only love.

Love is simple and is not a function of the mind. As you may know by now I like to call the yoga I practice and share Beloved Yoga. Hidden in that precious word is BE LOVED. A regular meditation practice may also be coined a self-love practice. Taking time each day to sit and feel unconditional love raining down on you, surrounding you, penetrating every cell until you become so full that for the rest of the day you are spilling over love. My teacher often said, "Love without looking to see who takes". I am so grateful for that example of unconditional love. If that is too tall an order than atleast notice your tendency to look for something in return for your acts of love and be gentle with yourself. We all do it!

In this very moment raise your chest forward and up and let the chin fall gently towards the chest, let the energy of the intelligence of your mind descend into the loving wisdom of the heart. Fall in love with your life and life will love you back...is that conditional? I think what really happens is you just start to notice the love all around you.

Practice loving without looking back. Be radiant because you are THAT!

Hope to love you (I mean see you) at the Boathouse tomorrow morning at 8:45am.

Namaste,

Jayanta

CASTLE Principles: Truthfulness

Hello All,

I hope your week is flowing with beauty and presence. As we continue through the Principles of Conscious Leadership we arrive at Truthfulness. This principle, like all of them, has an experience that is internal and an expression that is a bridge to those with whom you live, work and play. We all have moments where honesty is sacrificed out of fear and insecurity and those disempowering moments result in tension which becomes a knot in the mind-body system. This knot then obstructs the flow of energy in the body and also obstructs the quality of the emotional connection we enjoy with ourselves and/or individuals with whom we have been untruthful. On the yoga mat, we practice a deep honesty with our bodies by engaging in compassionate action and maintaining alignment in-spite of the mind's desire to go further and deeper. Patience is also a function of truthfulness.

Commit yourself this day to truthfulness as a path to relaxation and presence. Be vulnerable in your honesty and honest in your vulnerability. Allow others to be in their truth whether or not you agree, that is not the point. As you offer space to others to stand in their truth you too will find the courage, compassion, patience and power to stand in yours. As always, nature is a marvelous demonstration of this principle. Truthfulness is the simplicity of being who you are and yields tremendous freedom. The flower does not try to be anything it is not, it grows, blooms and dies with grace and simplicity. Truthfulness is the essence of your heart. Be in your beauty and you will begin to see that beauty reflected all around.

See you at the Boathouse tonight for yoga at 7pm and meditation at 8pm.

Love and Victory,

Jayanta