Mother's Wisdom

My mom took her first yoga class ever with me on Saturday. And by with me I mean that I was the teacher. She said she liked it a lot and that she thought I was an excellent teacher. It is a very cool experience to be able to share a talent, skill or accomplishment with those in your life that have made those very things possible for you. And while it was amazing for me to hear those things from my own mother, it was something else she said that morning that really showed me the deep wisdom that she has.

When I am driving to teach a class, I have a ritual of singing Kirtan on the way. This helps me to remember that everything I am doing in my life is practicing Yoga. And driving is one of them. You can practice Yoga while driving: go the speed limit. Let cars pass you. Sit on your sit bones ect. And breathe of course. Kirtan also helps to lift my spirits ensuring I arrive to class with a light heart. So I turned to my mom in the car and asked if she would mind if I sang some chants. She said of course.

I began with a chant about Ganesha, so obstacles could be removed (and because it's my favorite) and followed up with a Siva chant since it was Saturday (see last post) and it's a Siva day (Saturday=Saturn...and OK I am totally not an astrologer-still figuring that out). I began a chant I really like. "Hara Hara Mahadeva Shambo..." But then I came to a part in the song that goes really high. I did what I always do here and scrunched up my face, looked at my mom a little embarrassed and with eyes that said, "I don't think I can do this". And you know what she said, "Oh who cares Julie, just do it, you have to try. Just push through."

Om tat sat, Mom, Om tat sat.

Rama Bolo

It's Sunday. It's a Rama day. So what the heck does that mean you ask? I thought that today would be a good one for a little Vedic lesson. Basics in understanding what is being referred to when we speak of Rama, Siva, Ganesha..."who/what ARE these?"

I have been loving my new "epiphany" (it's not that ground-breaking because it's not that I didn't KNOW this before-but I am working now to actually LIVE this): that we are human BEings. Not human doings, not human havings. What we do and have will never determine how we BE; but conversely how we BE will determine what we have and do. And within the context of human BEings we hear a lot of "just be" talk. Well yes, it's wonderful to "just be" but there are some other really brilliant ways of "being" that we are guided to through Vedanta Philosophy with the three natures/aspects of "God". (I am going to use the term God in this post and you can take that or leave that or replace with whatever works for you. This is simply an exploration, not a postulation.)

So back to Sunday. I teach a Yoga class on Sunday mornings called Sunday Sadhana. Sadhana means spiritual practice. It's really lovely because I am able to delve into the more esoteric aspects of Yoga since it takes place at a studio as opposed to the more sanitized versions of the class I teach at the health club. We do some kirtan and talk about the aspects of the Sun and Rama. And so comes the background: there are 3 aspects or natures of God. I am going to explain each in its masculine/femine form (yin/yang, ha/tha), the nature and what it teaches us about being human:

1. Brahma/Saraswati: the creator. Here God creates all. In masculine it's the spider, in feminine, it's the web. The manifestor and the manifestation. In this we learn, that as divine beings, we are creators of our world. Our thoughts, words and actions create the life we live. We are divine authors. Here, we are humans being: CREATIVE.

2. Vishnu/Lakshmi: the preserver. Here God is in the act of living on earth. Vishnu/Lakshmi is abundance and how we live here in peace, in power, in surrender. It is the belief that Vishnu comes into the world in the form of an avatar (Rama/Sita, Krishna/Rhada, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed ect.). in order to remind humans that they are divine and of how to BE on earth. There is also Rama's faithful servant Hanuman. He is present to teach us that humans are servants, here to serve one another. In this we serve God. Here we are humans being: GRATEFUL, ABUNDANT, COMPASSIONATE, KIND, OF SERVICE.

3. Siva/Parvati (she is also known as Durga and Sivakami): the destroyer/transformer. Here we find the power of transformation. As all things are created, there is a natural cycle and what comes in this life, also goes. It is our duty to transform our lower natures (lust, anger, greed, hatred, jealousy ect) into divine natures (empathy, gratitude, love, compassion ect). Here we are humans being: TRANSFORMATIVE

In simple summary, humans are meant to BE: creating, serving, and transforming.

And so on Sunday, we sing "Rama Bolo!" where we are proclaiming "How grateful we are, how abundant is life, how kind is God, how can I serve my fellow man?"

Om tat sat.

Plan C

Plan C is the path you didn't 'see' before. It's the 'everything else' that you never before realized. There are two ways to think about this. One I learned from Sin Kuhn, a visiting teacher at the Yoga Farm. He called what I am referring to as Plan C, the 3rd Alternative. As he put it, there are three paths we can choose in any given situation, which I will explain-read on.

One night a few weeks ago, after taking a leadership and self-empowerment course, I had a rather strange dream. I dreamt I was pregnant. Even in the dream I knew this couldn't be possible. So I went to a friend (one who in real life is usually a voice of reason in my life) and she helped me to take another more accurate test that I didn't know exisited and it too read positive. At this point in the dream I was totally freaked out but also totally excited about the prospect of the experience ahead of me. And then my friend came to me with a box of pills. She pulled out a packet and it was labeled, "PLAN C". Ah-hah! (For those of you who don't get the 'joke' here, there is a "morning after pill" on the market that is actually called Plan B.)

Pulling together what I have been going through in making some major life decisions, my Saturn Return, and the many amazing people and opportunities in my life, I was able to intertwine Sin Khun's theories with one I was realizing for myself. And it looks like this:

Plan A/The 1st Alternative: What you know. The subconscious mind. The past replays itself. A broken record.

Plan B/The 2nd Alternative: What you know you don't know. What you can easily learn from another. What you can read up on. Your beliefs. The beliefs of others. Taking the path another has taken.

Plan C/The 3rd Alternative: Everything else. What don't know you don't know. The wide open unencumbered future. Creating your own path.

You see, Plan C is the path that opens the possibilities of being YOU. Because YOU have never lived before-in this life, in this body, in this family, in this job, in this role. And you came into all of these things for a reason. Plan C is taking risks, being scared, not knowing what the outcome will be. Like in my dream, I was scared, but I was also so very excited. Plan C is opening yourself to the possibility that anything and everything is possible. Is it scary? YES. Is it rewarding? YES. Is it the way we are meant to be living? I do believe so.

Take a chance. Go where no other has gone. Be wholly, authentically, beautifully YOU.


Om tat sat.