Sunday, March 12, 2017

Via Ram Dass

 
Now when most of us think of yogis, we think of somebody sitting, like Milarepa, up in a cave in the mountains, cross-legged and naked. There was snow, and ants were eating him, and the only food he took was nettle soup, and he ate it for so long he developed a green nettle fur all over him. But he was busy freeing himself from the dharma in order to come into union. Now that kind of moratorium is pretty unrealistic for most Westerners, so what role does yoga play in the West for us at the moment?

Well, along the way it will teach you how to control your consciousness, calm your own mind down, find a center, and get your body into harmony with your thoughts. It will get you back far enough inside yourself so that you can start to see how it all is, and start to experience compassion for yourself and for others around you.



Via Daily Dharma / Unlikely Dharma

Everything preaches the dharma—nuclear waste, skunks, flowers, grass—and does so fully and completely.

—Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, "On Not Being Stingy"