As if hidden, you are this

(image: owningpink.com)

I am hidden. Are you? As if to be hidden behind words that speak illusively, at all times, bouncing off buildings and walls. I shoot an arrow and it comes back to me. Some day.

are you just words?

Who are you anyway? Are you the words or are they merely what comes out when trying to speak? There is no time to leave important words unsaid. I speak of eloquence.

Inspirational times with comic undertones spark a tune in another. Sometimes. But, truly, it’s all for you. You who deserve to be timeless and unforgotten. You are where my eyes open to receive what I’m waking up to now. I am here now because you were there and smiled and felt.

i will walk with you

Create. Create all you can be. Be creative. Be daring. Be you.

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How Yoga Robin was born: Why private yoga instruction?

Private vs. group yoga

Many people drop into their favorite group yoga class, with usually a number of studios, teachers and times to choose from. With an unlimited membership at a studio, why would a student choose private instruction instead?

Robin in Death Valley 108 degrees (image © Simeon Schatz)

How I began teaching yoga

I started teaching private yoga exclusively

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Perception of time

Being on time?

Is a true spiritual practice about respecting time—living by it and being on time for it? Or does the mere concept of time mess with creative flow in life?  

Being late for everything in life

...is most likely to live in a timeless place in your mind. To come down from that—to live with a real clock—is a downer. In this way, the clock can be a method of control, and becomes one to fight against in order to be free...

image by simeon schatz

Let's look at two different spiritual ideas to compare: mindfulness from Buddhism and illuminated thoughts from Tantric tradition. 

Mindfulness seeks to empty the mind of thoughts, letting the thoughts go so that you are left with peace. 

Tantra invites the thoughts to become illuminated, positive or negative, so that you have a beacon in which to focus for your true path.

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Coming into wholeness

coming into wholeness

Coming into wholeness. Feel your peace. Be in love with your path in life.

Find it inside you. Let go of all that makes you worry. Be free.

Access this freedom any time! The truest side of you coexists with the emotional mind...

an advaita vedanta metaphor

Imagine 3 buckets of water. 

The sun is shining in all three, and they each enjoy the sun equally. One is muddy, one is stirred up, one is still and clear.

Reflection in bucket #1 is dim and dull, in bucket #2 is agitated, and in bucket #3 is peaceful. 

Sun is the Self, water is the Mind, reflection is the Ego (mis-identification)

Some conclusions...

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Follow the mist

Keep your mind opened to possibilities

Ever-changing, I seem in this moment to be in the middle of a silent breath between states.

Just as there are many forms of life, I notice that it is common for people to tag a style of being in the world, which then closes them off to other inspirations that could come spontaneously, from afar or from within.

There is a misty quality to knowing I am on the right path, regardless of the unknown.

I follow the mist........

follow your own truth

There are uncountable ways to grow and evolve. Each has his or her own way, and to follow another's way is to not fully engaging with one's own inner guidance. I am influenced by many modes of thought but always, in the end, I follow my own visions. 

In fact, my yoga practice has taught me this as well.

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Discipline: A spiritual practice

disciplined mind

I just returned from a Bikram yoga class. What sticks with me is not the power of enduring the heat, but the power of discipline to control the mind.

Bikram yoga, unlike the Vinyasa Flow yoga which I have 13 more years of experience with, has many rules that are not necessarily inherent in many people. In my life and in my yoga practice I am used to living organically, letting my life take me in a flow. When I am practicing yoga alone, I have no plans in advance for my practice. I let my yoga practice take me.

Sure, there is discipline required with many styles of yoga, such as Ashtanga. But the movement inherent in this active style, where you generate your own heat, and move your own prana makes for a more organic practice inately.

Back to Bikram. What I feel in these classes is the necessity for discipline, as I'm led along a distinct path and how the discipline itself becomes the spiritual practice.

stay present

It is important to notice where the mind goes in any yoga practice, but in Bikram it is more about needing to stay with the group, listen to the teacher on cue, not close your eyes, drink water only when told, rest in savasana over and over, to name a few

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Staying present

dealing with chaos

Staying present helps. It does help me to stay peaceful when life on my path deals me too much chaos.

Sometimes it seems like some force is behind it all, dealing me one blow after another or all simultaneously to get the largest effect. It is in these moments when I know that I am being shown a serious sign to listen.

find the lessons

To know the lesson, I need to refocus because staying with each moment, breathing patience, is the only way to get through the most chaotic times.

In this way I dive into the chaos and embrace it. I do not freak out.  Instead I laugh in a way. I invite each moment, dealing with it as it comes. In doing so, eventually I realize a miracle has occurred! I come out of the experience at peace and with a secret message...

find your personal power

From here in this space, absent of worries, I have more personal power. If I erase others' doubts and erase the pressures of needing to be more than I am, I can see the truth clearly.

To reach a personal space where I see people I care about as a resonance of my perfect heart beating, I feel freed of any negativity that could go along with feeding into chaos.

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An inquiry into my true nature: Self exploration

life force fuels

On my jaunt through life I have contemplated the truth of my nature. I have always felt most comfortable knowing that there is an ultimate source permeating us all, and at times I have felt a unity with this source. At other times I have felt completely alone. It was my yoga—vinyasa flow, ashtanga & meditation, in particular—that saved me from this quandary and answered many questions for me.

My search, through poetic expression, led me to this present moment as I move into my desires to use their creativity and life force to fuel me.

Taken as an excerpt from my poem yoga, what you do for me, I speak to you, yoga, inside me as you are me: You help me find my pure state of mind, you help me change energy into fuel, you help me find the deepest parts of myself without fear, you help me believe in magic and you taught me how I can do whatever I put my mind to.

In studying the histories of Sankhya-Yoga, Advaita Vedanta and Participatory Spirituality I have found inspirations from each to aid me on my path.

sankhya-yoga

Although Sankhya and Yoga are different systems, they work together and support each other so have been combined together as one unique system called Sankhya-Yoga.

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