YOGA ON THE LABYRINTH

Peace in the Midst of Outer Discord.

Darren Main — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:06:34 +0000

Only those who partake of the harmony within their souls know the harmony that runs through nature. Whosoever lacks this inner harmony feels also a lack of it in the world. The mind in chaos finds chaos all around. How can one know what peace is like if he has never tasted it? But he who has inner peace can abide in this state even in the midst of outer discord.
—Paramahansa Yogananda

A Place Within Me Opens

Darren Main — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:02:08 +0000

Sometimes, during my early-morning meditation, a place within me opens and parts of myself let go that I didn’t even know were holding on. In these moments I feel all the hard places in my heart and body yield to a great softness carried on my breath, and I am filled with compassion for the part of me that is always trying, always organizing, problem solving, anticipating. My mind stops and simply follows my breath. A great faith washes through me; a knowing that everything that needs to get done will get done. My shoulders drop an inch and the small but familiar ache in my chest eases—The moment stretches. There is enough: enough time, enough energy, enough of all that is needed. A great tenderness for myself and the world opens inside me, and I know that I belong to this time, to these people, to this earth and to something that is both within and larger than all of it, something that sustains and holds us all. I do not want to be anywhere else. I am filled with a commitment to, and a compassion for myself and the world.
—Oriah Mountain Dreamer from the book “The Invitation”

The Realization of Love

Darren Main — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:04:04 +0000

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer,
no disease that enough love will not heal;
no door that enough love will not open;
no gulf that enough love will not bridge;
no wall that enough love will not throw down;
no sin that enough love will not redeem . . .
It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble;
how hopeless the outlook;
how muddled the tangle; how great the mistake.
A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.
If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.
—— Emmet Fox

Comes the Dawn

Darren Main — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:00:12 +0000

After a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning and company doesn’t always mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts and presents aren’t promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman not the grief of a child

And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid flight.

After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone else to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure, that you are really strong and you really do have worth.
And you learn and you learn, with every good bye you learn.
—Veronica A. Shoffstall

The Caged Bird

Darren Main — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:06:11 +0000

There is a world of difference between a bird sitting and singing in a tree and a bird singing in a cage. It is only when the mind is free that the person can be free, not otherwise.
With a free and quiet mind, we are able to live with a song of life, a song of love, a song of joy in our hearts.
Yet our freedom should not be used as a reckless license to do anything we please. In true freedom and happiness, we like whatever we do, but we do not always do whatever we like.
——Swami Nirmalananda

If You Give Me A Name

Darren Main — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:03:09 +0000

If you give Me a Name, your eyes will see Me with that Feeling.

If you give Me an Age, your mind may know Me with that much Energy.

If you give Me a Personality, you may think you Know Me.

Allow Me to be Nameless and ever Changing.

Allow Me to be Ageless and to live in this Moment.

Allow Me to be Non-Descript and to melt into your Needs.

If you feel you must name ME, let my name be LOVE.

If you feel you must age ME, let my age be FOREVER.

And if you must know ME, then know ME as YOURSELF.
–unknown

Ecstasy is Welcoming the Uncomfortable

Darren Main — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:23:20 +0000

The genuinely committed person, who encounters resistances to ecstasy, will not turn to those who will give him reasons or excuses to encourage his lack of commitment. Rather, he will seek out someone who will faithfully and enthusiastically support him in challenging those resistances, passing through them and reaching the expanded freedom on the other side. Only to the extent that you willingly expose yourself over and over again to your fears, can you cultivate the experience of being ecstatic in your life. Thus, the aim of life itself is not to become comfortable. On the contrary, for life to be ecstatic, you must welcome the uncomfortableness that presents itself. To resist uncomfortableness will only perpetuate it.

The goal of mankind is to have life be comfortable and ecstatic without first being willing to go through any uncomfortableness. Every ecstatic moment is found only beyond a veil of uncomfortableness. Your willingness to push through your resistances at the moment they arise and to be uncomfortable at any moment, rather than seeking ways to avoid your uncomfortableness, determines the degree to which you will become “comfortable”, do the impossible, create miracles, and be ecstatic about life.
–Vern Black
“Love Me, Love Yourself”

The Obstacle Race

Darren Main — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:08:12 +0000

Remember, Yoga practice is like an obstacle race: many obstructions are purposely put on the way for us to pass through. They are there to make us understand and express our own capacities. We all have that strength, but we don’t seem to know it. We seem to need to be challenged and tested in order to understand our own capacities. In fact that is the natural law. If a river just flows easily, the water in the river does not express its power. But once you put an obstacle to the flow by constructing a dam, then you can see its strength in the form of tremendous electrical power.
—Swami Satchidananda

A World Out of Balance

Darren Main — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:24:11 +0000

It is actually much easier and more fun to be
compassionate, kind, generous and forgiving. But
people seem to forget this and wonder why they finds
themselves in a world out of balance. When we
forget ourselves we loose touch with the earth,
believe in Powerlessness, invent a wrathful ‘god’,
cruel leader,uncaring parents, rebellious children—
a desolate world.
Your relationship with the universe reflects what
you remember. There is no advantage to living in
fear. Wake up and pay attention.
—Haven Trevino, The Tao of Healing

I’ve Been to the Mountaintop

Darren Main — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:01:36 +0000

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter to me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop . . . And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.
So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
——Martin Luther King, Jr. (spoken on the eve of his death)