Do What You Ought To Do Today

    It is getting late.  Time is moving faster with each day.  It is easy to feel the insecurity of age and the passing of opportunity.  All you have to do is ring the bell;  step right up.  This is the time;  the time of your life.  Keep on moving.  Do what you ought to do today.

    It only takes this day.  If you act with conviction today, tomorrow will take care of itself.  It is about making the commitment to act today with the full faith that is part of the flow.  It is not the future challenge that is keeping you from your greatness;  it is the lack of movement today.  Today you find the Gordian Knot;  strike true.

    Pay attention today.  Feel the flow.  Find the subtle.  In doing so you will discover what you need to do.  You know what it is.  Follow, do not resist your path.  Live to serve your life, not to be served by it.


    It is getting late.  Time is instantaneous, and this is the moment of truth.  Ring the bell.  Be who you were born to be.  Do what you ought to do today.

Do What Thy Will

It is challenging to have a vision, but even more so not to work to bring it into fruition.  You will be consistently told that what moves you is not practical.  It may not be, but if you do not follow the “path that has a heart” you will feel the very life being sucked from your essence.  You will still live, but as pale version of yourself.  You may also find yourself discouraging another in what moves them.  
    
     Skellegense is a warrior practice.  It requires a warrior to brave the disapproving glances of others.  It is said that a warrior has contempt for death.  We live in fear of the dark path, and it represents all that we fear.  However the dark path is also the path of creation.   To be judged by others is to experience a death of a sort.  At least this is how our mind perceives it.  

     We meet death alone.  It comes to us all.  There is no need to fear it, it is our own, more than the closest loved one.  As death represents all that we do not want to happen, by learning to embrace our death we step into courage, we meet our deepest fears, and finally we have the courage to meet ourselves.  We find that our deepest fear is of who we might be.


     This life requires courage.  It is the only choice.  In courage we can find compassion and eventually kindness.  Do you choose courage or fear?  Be bold.  Live your dream.  Do not fear the nightmare.

The Truth of This Very Moment

    There is the moment.  The moment you are in.  It is perfect in itself.  It may not be what you want it to be,  but you are of this moment  so even your dissatisfaction serves the moment perfectly.  However,  even while identified in dissatisfaction there is a deeper self, one beyond the drama of the moment.  It exists at the level of the breath.  The one true breath.
     We exist for the creative, not realizing that whatever happens, creativity is served.  We must recognize our purpose, and live it with courage.  The courage that knows the fear of failure, but acts anyway.  We may act with trembling knees, but when we find the truth of the breath,  the truth of intention, we find our strength.  
    Live out this moment;   draw from the wellspring you have served in the lucid moments of your life.  Have faith.  You are here for a great purpose.

Changing the World

    It is easy to be overwhelmed and disheartened by the world in which we live. How do you not feel that the world is lost, how do you not fear that we are at the point of some sort of Armageddon?  The senseless violence and hatred combined with the personal stresses of family and attempts to meet our financial responsibilities can bring one to the brink of personal destruction if not even suicide.  What can you do?

    First, it is important to frame the situation in terms that you can succeed.  Remember, you have great power, and in many ways that power begins in your framing of the challenge.  You are a mystical being that exists at the nexus.  There is an infinite universe both outside and inside of you.  Apparently external events such as world conflict and disrespect.  Internal ones such as health issues and out of control thoughts and emotions.  This can be altered by learning to control the lens of your focus.  

     A person who has bias of any kind can and will see proof of their view every day everywhere they look.  They will see Islamic or people of color commit evil acts, or Americans or Jews, or women or men.  Whatever the passionately held belief is, there will be the proof before their eyes;  and they will be right in their assessment.  There really will be these elements.  We create our own world.

We must train ourselves to see the positive.  We must train ourselves to see people from these various groups doing what we know to be right and good.  These things are also happening, but we cannot see it.  The brain finds answers for the questions we ask it, and if you ask what is wrong with the world, the brain will seek to please us by defining answers we would choose to see.

Second and more importantly, when we deal with another or group of people who are charged in their sense of ego, we must resist the temptation to take up the word of judgement.  Ego is the sense of being separate from the world.  We frame the limits of our existence by feels different.  When faced with someone charged with their sense of separateness it charges our own sense of ego, or separateness.  We are not separate.  We are truly one.  If you define yourself by a falsehood of any kind you will eventually get yourself in trouble.  False definitions create false conclusions.

    We must bring a level of commitment to see this unity equal or stronger than the person who has a commitment to separateness.  This does not mean we will not defend or take precautions.  However the intent will not be to prove separateness.  If a person strikes out in a fever we may restrain them without seeing them as evil.  This also true when dealing with violence.  We also do not deal with the delusional by simply saying we think they are crazy.  We find compassion by learning to feel another's pain as our own.  We find kindness by seeing that the other as our own, of being of like kind.  We are the same.  

     Finally it is most important to realize that subtlety is more powerful than intensity.  Softness is more powerful that hardness, and water is more powerful than rock.  Do not be fooled my friend.  Learn to be soft, to be subtle and you will find the power to change the world.

Hold To The Center

    The world of extremes is always beckoning.  We are designed to give what ever has the greatest degree of intensity the greatest level of focus.  If we find truth, we hold it desperately, and judge whatever opposes it as evil.  
    This is certainly true of the recent political season.  Each side vilifies the other.  However, what if finding the truth was not the most important issue?  Perhaps the ability to see all sides is equally important to what is true.  
    Our sense of truth is obviously affected, and in the end shaped by our perception.  We may even be right, and find ourselves wrong at the same time.  How do you inoculate yourself from the arrogance of self-righteousness?  By striving to always see everything.  By being aware of the whole with as little judgement as possible.
    This is even true on the personal level.  We each are driven by elements of fear and shame.  We hide both of these elements from ourselves.  These emotions begin to act as the elephant in the room.  We are acting from them, driving toward a perceived perfection, when in reality often we are simply compensating for the fear of failure, of death, of the shame we live with.  
    This is never more true than for those of us with hidden shame.  The hidden affair, or discomfort with sexual orientation, the hidden alcoholism or drug addiction.  
      We must hold to the center.  We must resist the temptation to focus on that which titillates.  Remember there is a difference between desire and lust.  Greed in the end becomes an out growth of shame.  The hidden obsession eventually gets loose and wrecks havoc.  We find ourselves thinking of it all of the time, but hiding.  The more we do this the more power we give the object of fascination.  The more we hide the true object of our desire, the greater the intensity builds, until finally it does damage.
    See everything.  Keep your awareness broad and pay attention.  Notice the leaves equally as the political drama.  Pay attention to acts of kindness as much as those of disrespect.  See the validity of how others perceive the world.  Do not allow your identity to become a prison.

Death as an Advisor

Carlos Castaneda often spoke of using death as an advisor, and I think it is worthwile, but how?   First, it is important to remember that many of the ancients suggested this same course, with teachers from every mystic tradition saying much the same.  Death tells us to go for our passion, and to do do it now.
 
We have two basic options in facing death:  to be inspired, or to be terrified. There may appear options, but we find in reality only two.  Even those who appear to have an indifference to dying really experience life hiding and not really facing death.  We may go many years living as as though there is no end to this experience.  However reality is instantaneous, and one morning life has melted away and we find ourselves in bed with mortality, an embrace far closer than any lover.

It has been said that that a dying person needs death the way a tired person needs sleep, and certainly this is true.  Death is the central subject of our lives. Every action is really a masked statement about it’s presence.  The Hagakure remarks that the warrior has contempt for death.  We focus not on the fear of what might happen, but in the power of our own actions.  We as warriors act and are reacted to.   

A good relationship with death prepares us for the disappointment that is part of every situation.  To lose the fear of that disappointment is to come to peace with the contradiction of human life.  It is be at peace.  It is to be.
    

The Three Pillars

In living the life of practice I feel that there are three basic necessities, often referred to in Zen practice as "The Three Pillars." They, in my perception include study, the Sangha,or community and practice itself.

The first of these, study, includes the consistent habit of reading materials that are focused in meditation, stress reduction, or inspiration. It can also include at times biographies or anything that inspires you. It is important to occasionally return to elements that focus on mediation and stress reduction technique, but do not discount the power of that which inspires. My experience has indicated that it is far more likely to go from an inspired mind to a calm one. A little consistently is more important than a lot occasionally. Even a sentence a day can make a great difference.

The Sangha, or spiritual community is also of prime importance. By this I mean a group or even an individual you meet with on a weekly or biweekly basis. Combining with others and doing practice as well as discussing its effects is crucial. Even if this occurs at a distance it is very impactful. Your companions on this path will help to keep you connected, and you will help them. The combined energy of this group is more powerful than the sum of the individuals.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly is the life of practice itself. There is no substitute for putting the time in. Again, this does not have to be a great investment of time. Like study, a little consistently is more important than gorging yourself with practice once in a while. Even taking two minutes a day to pay attention to all that you can will change your life.

Activate the three pillars, and step into the magic of your life!

The End of Fall

Here we are in the process of another fall. It is such a beautiful time to watch the change of seasons, recognizing the winter quickly approaching. We can so easily miss joy of change caught in the foreboding of winter. However if we take the time to inhabit our lives, to actually see what is in front of us, this can be the best season of all. In the process we also feel passing of time and being truly present to it we also experience the call to action, the realization that we do not have forever, and that now is the time to act.

The strange thing is that in order to train ourselves to be present, we must step into self discipline. You know what to do, now is the time to activate; to apply your life experience and find the edge that means being truly awake. This is the time of your life. Be here for it.

The World Needs You Now

As within so be without. The world is in an inflamed state. Polarization seems to be the rule of the day. So often the dialogue is very white and black with very little ability and sometimes with very little desire to find the bridge between. We become trapped in the world of good and evil.

This is not just in the world of politics and world affairs. Even in the home we become at odds. The people who hurt us the most are not strangers, but family, friends, lovers. We become so familiar that we know our resentments are justified. Those resentments can even burn so deeply as to become a low level hatred. There is a fine line between love and hate.

So we learn that we are most likely to come to contempt with those we know best. Sometimes it is a contempt that we cannot even admit to ourselves even exists. It operates and and affects our decisions and actions without us sometimes being aware of the puppet master at all. We dress our bias up in disguise even with ourselves.

We come into contempt with that which we are most familiar. No longer truly respecting and looking with fresh eyes at a subject we assume we know so well. This is never so true as we when we are the subject. We are faced with a deep resentment that we feel toward our self. it too operates at submerged levels and creates the disease of self and other. We become split, one part vilified, one part the avenging god.

The world is inflamed, but the place to create peace is from within and then out. Learning to be more kind to ourselves, outward toward a more temperate relationship with our families and gradually in concentric circles around you. You can bring peace to this world, by choosing to direct your attention to what builds rather than what tears apart.

THE TWO PERCENT
Often we do not understand what to do. Some looming crisis stands at the edge of our imagination and we not only feel stuck, but at the brink of a creeping terror.
However when we take the time to look at the situation we find that we do know something we can do.
We may not be able to understand 98 percent of our situation, but if we focus in the two percent that we do know we can step into the self that is empowered, strong enough to face any challenge.
Think about it, a small opening can create the space for a deluge of water, enough to fill a space vastly larger. This is the power of on the two percent we understand. Soon we find we understand far more.
We do not have to remain blocked. Even if we can get no purchase on the central issue, if we focus on other areas we find a new power, a new confidence that translates.
Do not let yourself be blocked! This life wants your success. If you hang in, and step into power rather than weakness you can live the life you have dreamed. Your power comes from inside out.
Step into your strength!

Intention is all important. If the intention behind the giving of a gift is not the good of the recipient, then what is received is not truly a gift. Intention is all important.

It is likewise important to know the intention of your Yoga practice. Why are you doing Yoga? If the intention is found in wanting to be sexy, or competitive or to fulfill some goal the gift has ulterior motives and as such loses much of it’s power. The gift of Yoga should be found in truly wanting the body to thrive today. To see what it is capable of today.

As a result we experience another level of communication with the body, and a mutual respect. We find new levels of vitality and the experience of a true moment.

We find the discovery of true intention.

Touching The Edge

The edge is our current edge of limitation. To touch the edge is to find what we are capable of. It requires radical self-honesty. Often we must do less rather than more. It is a subtle experience. You will find it easy, not hard to do. However, as with so many easy things, we will often convince ourselves of it's difficulty.

Truly, the edge is a subtle, fragile place. It is like listening to a whisper. As with anyone that whispers, the secret must be honored. When you do not honor a whisper, there is a loss of trust, You are no longer trusted as safe. If you break this trust it takes a long time to be trusted again. However, if you do prove yourself worthy you become a confidant. More secrets will be told. In learning to "touch the edge without bursting through it" your body begins to open up; slowly at first, but later in bursts.

The outcome is not the central goal. In experiencing the joy of efficient physical expression we find the gentle edge. We become the very embodiment of vitality.

Why Yoga? What is it?

Yoga. Why Yoga? What is it? These are questions we ask ourselves when considering a Yoga practice. To many of us, Yoga seems like an exotic pass time in which super fit people get into super human poses. We feel that to take on the study of Yoga we have to aspire to things that we know in our heart we cannot do. Or, we go into that environment and push ourselves too far and step into injury. The prospect of being in a room with these fit people becomes daunting. Often we start a class and vainly attempt to keep up, and quickly stop going with a vague sense of having failed, not realizing that we just did not find the right practice for ourselves.

However this is not true. We simply have not found the right style of Yoga, or the right instructor. Yoga is the practice of learning how to tell what is right for ourselves using breathing exercises as well as physical postures with a focus toward being in the present moment. In the process we develop the ability to actually listen to ourselves rather than insist that we meet preconceived notions. We invite the body to change rather than insist that it do so. We initially try a few different styles of yoga such as Iyengar or a Vinyasa flow. Kripalu Yoga has been the style that resonated with me, because of the noncompetitive element of the style and it’s tendency toward an internal focus. This has helped to create a bridge, and fits perfectly with an orientation to living I call Skellegense.

Skellegense is the lifelong practice that I have worked with to find my own way in life, and a practice of learning how to reconnect with one’s inner most instincts. As we go on we lose this ability to tell what is right for us. It is like having someone tell you something you have never heard or thought of before, and immediately knowing that what they are saying is right. It is not deciding on the truth but in uncovering the truth that resides inside. The more we experience this feeling of deep rightness, the more we know it and can get back to it. This is Skellegense.

We use Yoga, and in my case Kripalu Yoga to reignite this internal relationship. It does not mean that other styles of Yoga, or for that matter Chi Qong or Thi Chi might be better for some. We recognize that what is right for us, may not be right for others. We create a practice that is uniquely our own, and do not force ourselves to be what we are not. It is a warrior practice because it requires radical self honesty. It recognizes that a person with Parkinson’s who is touching their edge can have a stronger practice that someone else who may able to do much more if they are doing what is appropriate for them. Skellegense.

If you come to us to help facilitate this internal listening you can expect us to be an invaluable aid as we teach you craft a a practice that is uniquely your own. You will begin to notice how it affects you on as well as off the mat experiencing greater physical capability, with an improved enjoyment of your life and the relationships that make it up. You will develop a visceral experience of Skellegense, not based in the definition of the word, but in the living of a life that sees more vivid colors, more subtle tastes, and what it means to let go. We find that another way of describing letting go is receiving. Skellegense is a process of uncovering what is right for us rather than deciding it.