I love it when practices like Yoga, Aikido, Kung-fu, surfing, running, writing are described as nobel pursuits. It implies that the nobelness is not about achieving mastery, but more so achieved through the persuit of mastery. The answer is in the dirt of the day to day practice.
yoga
Green fields
It’s uncanny how many people imagine a green field when they meditate and still their mind. The field is there waiting for them.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right doing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
– Rumi
What can I offer?
Change the question from ‘what can I get?’ to ‘what can I offer?’ Do it every morning you wake up and try to start every interaction in this frame of mind.
Mental back bends
Writing is yoga for the brain
Don’t force it
If you are forcing it then it’s not yoga. Listen to your body
Get ready
Shibui
Shibui is a Japanese word that refers to a style that is simple, elegant, subtle, and unobtrusively beautiful.
I think that western culture is starting to appreciate the practice of shibui. In the way we live, in the things we buy, and how we spend our time. Just look at the elegant hardware coming out of Tesla and Apple, or Eichler designed homes in California with simple lines and natural light.
I love this trend.
(Giving + Joy) > (Getting + Joy)
There are no maps of the change
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don’t.”Stephen King, The Stand
Uvivi
Uvivi is a Zulu word which means the darkness before the dawn. It’s true. It’s more so in the bush, but I sometimes get the same experience in the city.
My son woke me up this morning at 4am. After I had tucked him back into bed and coaxed him back to sleep, I paused for a second and looked out of the upstairs window. It was pitch black outside, the city was quiet…a rare moment in a busy and growing city like San Francisco. The moment felt like no mans land – a shift between midnight and dawn.
There are gateway places out there with thin membranes. Places like Point Reyes, north of San Francisco and Big Sur, south of Monterey. Places with thin membranes, where it’s a lot easier to feel connected to something greater than yourself and ‘tap in’. I felt a similar connection at 4am this morning. The moment passed and the next thing I knew I was crawling back into bed as the first hints of sunlight started to appear. The moment had passed but the impression remained.
Sometimes a connection to something bigger isn’t about being in a place it’s about being in a state of mind.
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