some of my favorite quotes and passages... read on and off the mat
Those who don't feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change,
let them sleep.
Rumi, Ode 314
"That by which you fall is that by which you rise"
Tantric aphorism
The rules: 1. Everything will always work out. 2. Breathe. 3. Drink Water.
On the wall at my chiropractor's office
"Falling in love with yourself is mandatory if you want to achieve blinding brightness"
Unknown
"I am my own crazy fun best friend"
me
I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt above a tract
of inland ground, applying to his ear
the convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely; and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy; for from within were heard
Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea.
Even such a shell the universe itself
Is to the ear of faith; and there are times,
I doubt not, when to you it doth impart
Authentic tidings of invisible things;
Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power;
and central peace, subsisting at the heart
of endless agitation
William Wordsworth [read in class 1/21]
"Faith is not being sure. It is not being sure, but betting with your last cent... Faith is not a series of gilt-edged propositions that you sit down to figure out, and if you follow all the logic and accept all the conclusions, then you have it. It is crumpling and throwing away everything, proposition by proposition, until nothing is left, and then writing a new proposition, your very own, to throw in the teeth of despair... Faith is not making religious-sounding noises in the daytime. It is asking your inmost self questions at night, and then getting up and going to work... Faith is thinking thoughts and singing songs and making poems in the lap of death."
Mary Jan Irion, from "Yes, World: A Mosaic of Meditation"
"One must put all the happiness one can into each moment"
Edith Wharton
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Live with no time out"
Simone de Beauvoir
"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be. You are a child of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God/the Divine within us. It is not in just some of us. It is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others."
Marianne Williamson
[About ahimsa... read in class on 1/9/08] When we are busy holding on to our perceived accomplishments and failures, we become attached to these as part of our identity. The act of holding onto identity formed in the past blocks us from forming new identity in the present and future. In areas that we consider ourselves to have some expertise (work, hobbies, even familiar emotional states), we can come to believe that we are knowledgeable and accomplished, rather than continuing to foster a sense of curiosity and seeking new experiences. In asana practice, for example, we may hold on to ideas of familiar postures. Sometimes we regard familiar asanas as poses we are "good" at. Others are poses we consider "hard" or poses we "don't like." Holding these impressions blocks us from experiencing the poses with freshness and presence. It is important to recognize that none of these qualities are inherently present in the postures themselves. If we want new experiences, we must release our anticipation for repetition of past experiences.
Amey Mathews
Jay: What's moxie?
Louie: Tell him, Arty.
(Arty rolls up his sleeves and motions for an invisible opponent to bring it on.)
Arty (to Jay): That's moxie.
from Lost in Yonkers