We are really more similar than we think we are different.
6 years ago** I would never have been in awe of what I saw on the computer screen. But I felt myself being drawn towards the screen while the technician brought the cursor to the letter 'R' that labelled the right side of my chest X-Ray. Wow, I have never seen my heart before. And here it is, right in front of me. That bit of radiation was well worth it to witness such a miracle, both in its technology and the fact that I have a heart; just like everybody else.
(**6 years ago was when I officially began a consistent practice of yoga. Throughout the years, the practice not only balanced my body and mind, but also brought a new awareness. An awareness to my body and my environment, heightening my senses and curiosity towards almost everything.)
One of the Dalai Lama's practice , as I have read in his book of happiness, is to exercise compassion by recognizing the "human-ness" in everyone you meet. Easy to say, but when it comes to exercising compassion when you are frustrated, annoyed or heart-broken, it's hard to identify the fact that we are all innately 'human' and that beyond all the emotions, we are still very much similar.
Looking at perhaps someone sitting in front you, notice that he/she has a nose like you, a heart beating like you, maybe a crooked smile like you when you feel shy, a frown when things look a little confusing ....
I left a relationship a few weeks ago, heart breaking I must admit, and it was largely due to unresolved differences. This just sets me to think, are we really that different if our issues were both born out of insecurities and need for attention? Yes we might have very different personalities, but I think if we counted our similarities (love for a good time on weekends, afternoon naps and working out) more often than differences, we might have had an easier time.
From my beating heart to yours, Namaste.
I've always had a hard time making decisions. Ive been told that the word 'decide' came from a latin orgin that meant 'to kill'. To kill off something definitely sounded a tad bit too violent for me to do.
But recently, I found a good way to make this 'killing' process a little easier. The Dalai Lama said in his book with Howard C. Cutler, The Art Of Happiness, that really it's just a matter of knowing if the situation will bring you more pleasure or more happiness.
Pleasure is short-lived, albeit enjoyable while it lasted, sometimes even to a point of ecstasy. Happiness is long-lasting, definitely not over-the-hill joy, but a permanent bliss that stays for a long time. This reminds me of the word 'Ananda' is sanskrit which means bliss. ( Sanskrit, like many traditional old languages, usually has many meanings in one word. sometimes deeper than what it seems. sometimes the sound of the word gives rise to another. ) I had a few fleeting moments of this, one time at a local cafe in Ubud, enjoying the remnants of an excellent yoga class, with good company, good conversation about life and good food. I have been conditioned by the peacefulness of my surroundings for about a week or 2 and have attained this 'blissful' state where im not extremely happy nor extremely sad, just happy.
Quoting from the book :
"Will it bring me happiness?" That simple question can be a powerful tool in helping us skillfully conduct all areas of our lives, not just in the decision whether to indulge in drugs or that third piece of banana cream pie. It puts a new slant on things. Approaching our daily decisions and choices with this question in mind shifts the focus from what we are denying ourselves to what we are seeking -- ultimate happiness. A kind of happiness, as defined by the Dalai Lama, that is stable and persistent. A state of happiness that remains, despite life's ups and downs and normal fluctuations of mood, as part of the very matrix of our being...... The underlying sense of moving toward happiness can have a very profound effect, it makes us more receptive, more open, to the joy of living.
I am a big lover of coconuts, even though I have been poisoned twice by dirty coconuts, ( beach, ladies carrying fruits on their heads... you get the picture? ) I still swear by it.
One way to get them in Singapore is to get the thai coconuts with their top off at Cold Storages across the island, but recently I found an even better, cheaper and ALL NATURAL option. No sugar added! I've been looking for this particular brand of coconut juice (picture above) for a while now and finally found them cheap at NTUC fairprice. There are several brands available, but look for this particular one which has no sugar added. $2.65 for 3 cans! This is cheaper than buying a real coconut.
Some benefits of coconut water :
- best hydrating option after or before workout ( please don't do sports drinks) because of the natural electrolytes present
- actually contains 15 times more potassium than a sports drink or twice as much as a banana. (It's also a great hangover fixer)
- if you are stuck on an island and cannot find an IV drip, the coconut water is the closest thing you can use to directly infuse into your blood (it is identical to human blood plasma, many 3rd world countries have used Coconut IV)
Besides the water, coconut oil is also a fantastic option for people who love to cook. Use it as a eye make up remover, for an all natural organic option that also prevents wrinkles.
Well it's been dip month all April since I got back from Ubud, Bali. Very inspired by raw food (or LIVE food) lifestyle, Ive been creating recipes so I can eat more raw vegan food whilst in a land of cooked food.
I've experienced first hand how much raw vegan food has made a difference in my body. Rise in energy level, no bloated stomach and eating so much yet still losing weight! For those who are not familiar, the theory behind raw food is that we keep the natural enzymes in the food needed for optimum digestion in our bodies. Food can be prepared any way as long as it is kept under 45 deg c. And because our bodies spend SO MUCH time and energy digesting (as much as 80%), we become tired and bloated all the time. Imagine if your food went down smoothly with minimal needed digestion, the body then spends more time on your skin, hair, nails, healing, growing and repairing!
Im not really a cook, I just mix whatever feels/tastes good.
SO here are the ingredients for the raw vegan cheese & avocado dip :
(use discretion for amount)
Cashew nuts (soaked for 2hrs to germinate and soften)
Avocado
Garlic
Parsley
Turmeric
Capsicum
Coconut water
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Himalayan Sea Salt
Paprika
optional - ground oregano/cumin
serve with your favourite vegetables!
shanti shanti
yun
Let me share a nice little story about one of my students. She has been going for a meditation course here in Singapore for a while and when she came for my class one day, she exclaimed about how surprised she was when she had a vision during one of her recent meditation. This 'spiritual' sort of thing has never happened to her before. Since that 'spiritual' session, she began to observe her own 'psychic' skills. She started to anticipate many of her family members actions before they occured.
Now, what Im trying to show here is that we are ALL able to be 'psychics' in our own right. Just like we are ALL innately GOOD. We just need to learn to connect to this part of ourselves which already exists. Whatever you wish for yourself, you already have it. And once you learn to connect, you will feel more aligned and much more 'spiritual'. 'Spiritual' is not just about being able to 'OM' the longest or being able to memorise the entire yoga sutras, to me, being spiritual is about being a kinder, more compassionate person. That's all.
So happy happy 2012! Let every experience that may come be 'label-less', not good nor bad, just let them be an experience. Learn, Love & Let It Be. My three 'L's for the new bright year ahead.
Lokha Samasta Sukino Bhavantu, May All Beings In The World Be Happy & Free.
Just the other day I caught myself making a big exclamation, after being told to just stay in and finish all my work, thus skipping my routine evening yoga class. It was an immediate reaction, I screamed made my reply somewhat organically, " Even if the sky falls, Im going to class!"
This might seem a bit of a statement for many. Is she crazy? Is she too obsessed over...yoooga??
I began to examine the statement I made, how I came to have this sudden outburst.
No, it's not going to kill me if I don't go to class. But if the sky does fall, the only thing that is going to make it 'rise' again, I firmly believe, is a yoga class. After years of practice, I've realised that I've NEVER stepped out of a class unhappy. Maybe once or twice or thrice, I will give myself a hard time for not achieving a posture or I might not be 'feeling' the teacher too much. In these rare occasions, my mood never dipped. It might have stayed the same, but I was never terribly upset. Even if I was, or if I will be in the future, I know that it will work well for me as a lesson to grow from. A good one for sure!
The thing is, wherever I am, whatever situation I may be, I know that yoga will meet me there.
Leaving you with a quote I love "Our greatest fear isn't that we are inadequate, our greatest fear is being powerful beyond belief."
Love,
Yun
My chant of the moment
(btw if you like the sound of the chant so much you cannot get it out of your head, it's probably working!):
“Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwara
Guru Sakshat Param Brahma Tasmai Sri Guruve Namaha"
Our creation is that Guru, The duration of our lives is that Guru, Our trials and hardships are that Guru. There is a Guru that is nearby and a Guru that is beyond the beyond. I offer all my efforts to the Guru.
Guru Brahma is the lord of creation and represents all the times and moments of new beginnings and creation in our lives. Our parents are our original creators and so they are our first Guru Brahmas. Guru Vishnu is the sustainer, representing the stretches of continuousness that make up our lives. Guru Devo Maheshwarah is Shiva as the dancer. This represents destruction and the hardships. The moments in our lives when something is ripped from us, relationships fall apart, when we are thrown into turmoil. Even though these moments can be dark, the wisdom that dawns after, the ways in which we are able to grow as a result of these experiences, make them essential to our lives.
In this chant we are honoring and recognizing these aspects of life as opportunities to learn. We are respecting the experiences of our lives as situations that can teach us. Learning to except the darker moments as necessary parts of the cycle of life can make going through those moments easier. Before Brahma is able to create, Shiva has to destroy.
Day 4 and it is still hard to sit through 15 min. This is harder than I thought. I used to find 15 min easy. Being conditioned to be constantly preoccupied by something (phone, computer, planning, making lists !) is not helping, but I am looking forward to better practices as I get use to the process of setting myself up and getting into the 'zone'.
Reading 'Light on Life' by B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the first teachers to bring yoga to the west, brought me to this chapter on 'Pain: Find Comfort In Discomfort':
" Many people focus on the past or the future to avoid experiencing the present, often because the present is painful or difficult to endure. In yoga class, many students think that they must simply "grit their teeth and bear it" until the teacher tells them they can come out of the asana. This is seeing yoga as calisthenics and is the wrong attitude.
The pain is there as a teacher, because life is filled with pain. In the struggle alone, there is knowledge. Only when there is pain will you see the light. Pain is your guru. As we experience pleasures happily, we must also learn not to lose our happiness when pain comes... We must not try to run from the pain but to move through and beyond it. This is the cultivation of tenacity and perseverance, which is a spiritual attitude toward yoga. This is also the spiritual attitude toward life...
While we do not actively seek out pain, we do not run from the inevitable pain that is part of all growth and change."
This tides me over on a bad day.
'I don't have time for meditation!'
This is my usual excuse for not taking time off to just sit with myself. My experience with meditation is little, but the experience I had was memorable.
In the time that I was in Goa, India, I had the chance to learn under Hamid Ebadi, a zazen teacher who used to be a monk. He travels between Cambodia and India to teach and provide therapy sessions/dreamwork sessions to people who wish to talk to him. I still communicate with him sometimes via skype, and we talk about everything from why we have to kill buddha if we see him on the road to dreams I had the night before. I keep a dream book now because of him.
In one meditation session, we had to sit for 45 minutes in cosmic mudra, twice, with a 15 min meditative walk in between. Pain, cramps and ants crawling around me aside, it really whipped my patience. What i discovered after, my sensations were dramatically heightened. I could hear butterflies fluttering next to my ears and colors of the trees became more vivid. The plain porridge offered for breakfast became the best breakfast I had in my entire trip. ( I spent the rest of my India trip longing for that particular bowl of porridge) Basically, the world became beautiful. I can't help smiling to myself at how much clarity is achieved just by sitting silently, clearing my mind of thoughts.
Obviously, meditation is not an easy task. And I do not think many can successfully 'meditate'. How can you not THINK? How can you tell yourself not to think of anything? aren't you already thinking as you think that thought?? The trick here, I learnt from Hamid, is to observe your thoughts and not react to them. You observe them like clouds passing in the sky, but do not fuel them. Do not fuel your thoughts. Observe like a witness would by the bank of flowing river. I also learnt from Meg, a yogi friend, that the one way that worked for her, was to observe very closely how her breath passed through her nostrils as she sat in meditation.
Now, I digress. The point of this post is to start myself on a 30-day 'disciplinary' programme of meditating for 15min everyday. This may sound easy, but try this with me and you will realise how much self-discipline it takes to just SIT SILENTLY.
On top of this, I will take away fried food from my meals as a form of body cleanse. An experiment to see how the food I eat can affect my meditation and yoga practice. I have never been strict about my food and I guess now it is the best time to. Day 1 starts tomorrow!
The 'lotus' pose, or Padmasana, in yoga is no doubt taken from the shape and form of a lotus flower. Seeded in muddy waters, the lotus rises above the mud and produces a beautiful fragrant flower. As in life, we want to rise above our troubles and sufferings, blossoming when finally enlightened. It is through our doubts and suffering that we rise to become a better person.
"According to the Lalitavistara, ‘the spirit of the best of men is spotless, like the new lotus in the muddy water which does not adhere to it’, and, according to esoteric Buddhism, the heart of the beings is like an unopened lotus: when the virtues of the Buddha develop therein the lotus blossoms. This is why the Buddha sits on a lotus in bloom."
One of the famous chants for the lotus "Om Mani Padme Hum" is a fantastic mantra to have. The next time you bind your legs together in Padmasana, think of what makes you bloom like a lotus.
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