Readings from the Intensive

I read these passages before puja and pranayama on Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5 of our intensive. I thought I'd pass them along as they proved quite meaningful for us. Enjoy. 

I will write  more soon, because really, there is so much more to write about. It was a major week that was also incredibly sane, grounded, joyful and easeful.  I am inspired and restored from a week of no-nonsense, back-to-the basics-bad-ass-asana, wonderful company, deep conversation, authentic sharing, joyful laughter and a whopping dose of the Teaching. Again, more soon.

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"We chant so that at the very beginning that feeling of sanctification comes from inside, with the feeling of surrendering oneself, because nothing can be learned in this world unless you have the humility to learn. So the moment you think of the Lord at the beginning of doing a practice, you know you are very small in front of that greatest soul. Once that is understood then the other problems which always arise while practicing, mainly concerned with the ego, will be affected. You know that you are "coming down" to learn something. And you can't learn anything unless you come down; if you think you are on top and you know everything, then you are not a learner at all. In that sense, the chanting helps."

-Geeta Iyengar

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yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi

yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat

yat tapasyasi kaunteya

tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam

"Whatever you do, whatever you eat, 

whatever you offer, whatever you give, 

whatever austerities you perform, Arjuna, 

Do that as an offering to Me.

-Bhagavad Gita, verse 9:27

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In A Tree House

Light 

Will someday split you open

Even if your life is now a cage,

For a divine see, the crown of destiny,

Is hidden and sown on an ancient fertile plain 

You hold the title to.

Love will surely bust you wide open

Into an unfettered, blooming new galaxy

Even if your mind is now

A spoiled mule.

A life-giving radiance will come,

The Friend's gratuity will come-

O look again within yourself,

For I know you were once the elegant host

To all the marvels in creation.

From a sacred crevice in your body

A bow rises each night

And shoots your soul into God.

Behold the Beautiful Drunk Singing One

From the lunar vantage point of love.

He is conducting the affairs 

Of the whole universe

While throwing wild parties

In a tree house- on a limb

In your heart.

-Hafiz