There’s a phrase used to describe certain saints or yoga gurus, called “sage of steady wisdom.”

I figure there are many good reasons I’m not insanely rich or famous. I thought about this because a commercial just came on for the CMAs (Country Music Awards) with Carrie Underwood heavily featured. It makes me think about young people that are suddenly thrust into fame, and how they instantly become role models, ready or not.

I would much rather be ready. Any fool can have an opinion, and any fool can be famous or have a following. A good point was made on Bill Maher the other night that President Bush has a 24% approval rating, so no matter how the next election turns out, a quarter of the voting population are fools!

But seriously, how much better to have spent many, many years learning from others, and considering what is true and what is not, so that every word out of your mouth is uplifting and true. A sage of steady wisdom is the goal.

I've been learning the concept of ego & responsibility vs. total surrender to 'God' (and by God I mean the sum total of all things). It is said that you either claim responsibility for all that you accomplish in life, or you give credit to God. The second option works in your favor when things go poorly–'it was God's will; the universe has other plans for me.'

It makes me think of the artists that win awards and always dedicate them to God. I usually roll my eyes because most of these guys have such big egos that you know it is insincere.

However, it's an interesting concept of laying all your actions at God's feet: Do your best and let God do the rest.

I'm wondering if the same applies to randomness vs. God's Plan. Either everything is random or it is all part of God's Plan. My experience has made me feel that you do reap what you sow, and that you do get what you need in life (just not always what you want). So even though I love the concept of chaos and randomness, it seems like things are pretty well ordered sometimes. But that may just be the engineer in me trying to solve puzzles.

Enough thoughts for tonight…

I can’t believe I forgot to blog about this, but I found out about a month ago that the couple that bought some eggs from me a while back found out they are pregnant! It took them 2 cycles to be successful. MY Mom and Dad were quite excited that they were going to be some kind of grandparents again!

It’s pretty wild to think that my DNA is growing in another woman’s stomach as we speak, and all the traits the biological mother (ME!) passes on are being passed on. Please send your thoughts and prayers this way for a safe pregnancy and healthy child…the parents are actually going to send me a picture of the baby once he/she is born. Wild times we live in.

I would do it again, but there is always a risk when you are injecting yourself with higher levels of hormones, not to mention infection risks of getting your ovaries pierced to extract the eggs. I wouldn’t want to screw up my OWN chances of delivering a child. On the other hand, who knows, these kids could likely be in better hands and homes than mine :) I don’t have any delusions that I would be a perfect parent, by any means. At least I know this one will be in good hands.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

~Mahatma Gandhi, Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 – 1948)

That's all I really needed to say. Goodnight.

On NPR today, the host of the show started to ask his guest about his research by saying, “Maybe you could give us a thumbnail synopsis.” What??? Why couldn’t he just say a “short summary”???

When people become over-educated, they make things way more complicated than they should be! Please, if you feel the need to learn more things than the average person, please don’t feel the need to show off with extraneous or flashy words. They confuse things, rather than illuminate. K.I.S.S.

Light Fixture Reflection on Plastic Table Cover

If I seem a bit obsessed about Yoga lately, it’s because I’m in the 9th week of a 12-week intensive training to become certified as an instructor. We have a test on Wednesday on the precepts of Yoga, or “Raja” Yoga. So below is a summary of some key yoga concepts, for you to enjoy, but mostly to help me prepare for my test!

References to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are given in parenthesis (Book-Sutra).

The eight limbs of yoga practice are (2-29):
1) yama (The abstinences: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, non-greed)
2) niyama (The observances: purity, contentment, accepting but not causing pain, study of spiritual books, and surrender to God)
3) asana (steady, comfortable posture)
4) pranayama (breath control, expansion of energy)
5) pratyahara (sense withdrawl)
6) dharana (concentration)
7) dhyana (meditation)
8) samadhi (contemplation, absorption, or super conscious state)

The ultimate goal of pranayama: Prepares the mind for meditation. How? Calming the mind, clearing the naadis. In meditation, find a point of awareness, and when the mind wanders, bring it back to that single point.

Definition of Yoga according to Sri Patanjali (1-2): Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah. The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga.

There are 2 types of vrittis or modifications of the mind-stuff (thoughts) (1-5): Painful and Painless

Our relationships to our vrittis/thoughts can be either selfish or selfless. If we feel we are in a position of need, the thought is selfish and we will feel pain.

Mental modifications are restrained by Practice and Non-Attachment (The 2 wings of the bird of freedom) (1-12).

Practice is defined as effort toward steadines of mind (1-13), and becomes firmly grounded when well-attended-to for a long time, without break, and in all earnestness (1-14).

Non-Attachment is the consciousness of self-mastery in one who is free from cravings for objects seen or heard about (1-15).

The mind can retain its calmness by cultivating the following attitudes toward people (4 keys for 4 locks, use the right key for the lock) (1-33):
1. Friendliness toward the happy;
2. Compassion for the unhappy;
3. Delight for the virtuous;
4. Disregard/indifference for the wicked.

Reflecting on the results/consequences of your actions before performing them is called pratipaksha bhavanam (2-34).

The six branches of Integral Yoga are:
Hatha Yoga- body, postures, breath
Raja Yoga- mind, ethical perfection
Bhakti Yoga- heart
Karma Yoga- life/actions
Jnana Yoga- wisdom, self-analysis, who am I?
Japa Yoga- meditation

Some Sanskrit Terms:

The Five Koshas, or sheaths: Anamayakosha (Food Body), Pranamayakosha (Energy), Manomayakosha (Mind), Jnanamayakosha (Intellect), Anandamayakosha (Bliss)

Yantra- a visual representation of a Mantra
Mantra- a sound vibration of some aspect of the divine
Chakra- an energy center
Sangha- spritual community
Prana- cosmic energy (a subtle concept I’m still working on wrapping my head around, otherwise known as chi, life force, etc.).
Naadis- subtle nerves (this one I can relate to acupuncture meridians, energy channels, nodes that prana can pass through, etc.)
Ida-naadi energy channel associated with the left nostril & right hemisphere of the brain
Pingala-naadi energy channel associated with the right nostril & left hemisphere of the brain

From the book, Holy Yoga, written by a recently born-again Christian:

“The usual criticisms of yoga from a Christian standpoint fall into a few major categories:
*Yoga can’t be separated from the Hindu religion
*Yoga is about emptying the mind
*Yoga’s goal is to find divinity in oneself
*Yoga opens you up to false gods and demonic influences
*Yoga will be a stumbling block to your Christian witness”

I’d like to address some of the above claims based on what I’ve learned to date.

1) Christians would generally take offense with Hinduism’s pantheistic approach, that God has many sides of himself that are equally of value to worship by anyone of any means. The fact that you can worship a rock, or a picture of someone else’s creative version of God is unacceptable. Their assertion is that God is strictly defined: God is a “he”, God has a Holy Spirit, God has a son named Jesus, a nemesis named Satan, and a crew of angels.

My issue with the Hindu religion is its concept of karmic rebirths. So until I become immersed in Samadhi, my crown chakra open to the universe, and I become aware of all that is and all that was, and it is revealed to me that I lived many lives before and finally became a being fit for yogic union with the universe, I probably won’t buy the idea that the billions of years involved in our creation was so that humans could experience bliss with God, something that other creatures and inanimate objects merely “aspire” to.

I think if you were truly open-minded and tolerant, you would know that all the plants and animals and humans less “gifted” with spiritual longings are absolutely perfect just the way they are. I suppose if this is the case, then the practice of yoga is reduced to, evolutionarily speaking, simply another way of extending our odds of survival by creating harmony in our species so that we don’t kill each other or other important creatures in our ecosystem off. Which, I think, is a great reason to practice yoga in and of itself.

So, no, why buy the whole cow (Hinduism) when you get the milk (Yoga) for free? On the other hand, if the ancient Yogis were brilliant enough to dream up this almost flawless scientific system for living a healthy, peaceful, life, maybe the Hindus that were smart enough to adopt Yoga knew something that I don’t about previous lives and rebirths…

2) Yoga is about emptying the mind:

Yes it is. And if you think a devil is going to take control of your mind if you stop thinking for 1 minute about what you’re going to have for dinner and what you should have done at work that day, then, what can I say? The old age quip that an empty or idle mind is the devil’s playground probably applied more to juvenile delinquents than to people simply trying to bring a little peace to their lives. On the other hand, if you empty your mind with the intention or expectation that evil thoughts will enter, then they probabaly will, and you probably shouldn’t do it.

3) Yoga’s goal is to find divinity in oneself:

Again, although the Bible says God is omnipresent, and all things came from God, Christians refuse to entertain the notion that if everything came from God, then everything is a holy expression of God. How could it not be so? Even if you try to use the “he is the potter and we are the clay” argument, it doesn’t quite hold water, because it was he who made the clay, and the wheel, etc. Everything is exactly as it was meant to be, because God is perfect, therefore, imperfection cannot come from God.

“Na-mas-te” is a common phrase used in Yoga. Roughly translated from Sanskrit, it means “that which is divine in me recognizes that which is divine in you.” We say this because we know that we are more than just our bodies; we are some incomprehensible expression of an all-encompassing, all-powerful universe, that in-and-of-itself could be called “God.” Some people need a more personal, ego-centric, more removed-from-the-events God, so to them, our universe/existence is rather God’s creation, or God’s dream. But ultimately, it is all just God in the end.

So the question of whether you are looking inward for divinity is the wrong question. The right question is WHY you look for divinity. And if looking within yourself for divinity causes you to think you are valuable above everything else in existence, then you have missed the point, and are NOT in line with Yogic precepts. Yoga teaches us to examine our thoughts, eliminate wrong thinking and replace it with spiritual thinking, so that the SELF becomes less and less important, and the essence of the self, which is the same in all of us, which is an expression of God, becomes more and more important.

The last 2 points aren’t really worth discussing at this juncture. That’s my brief-as-possible justification for Yoga for today.

I think you are lucky if you find divinity (a.k.a. God, a.k.a. anything more wonderful than yourself) anywhere, and you should probably treasure it and be grateful for it whatever form you find it in.

It’s interesting to me to think about the choice one has in life to live as a yogi, always in peace, always in bliss, or, as most mortals live, a life of ups and downs, pleasures followed by pains, followed by pleasures, followed by pains. This comes to mind in athletic pursuits…If you choose to accept the great feelings you have when you succeed, and triumph, you are also choosing to accept feelings of defeat, pain, and need…the need to be better, throw farther, run faster, whatever, when you don’t succeed. Needs necessarily make us feel not good enough, and take our peace away.

I always thought it was weird to ban those funky dance celebrations after a team made a touchdown in football. But on further contemplation, maybe it reveals a kind of higher truth that the ego shouldn’t be glorified. It is okay for the entire team to celebrate after a victory, but for one person to do the moon walk after a success puts the attention on the individual pride rather than the collective effort.

As an athlete with goals and needs, you must accept that there will be pain and there will be pleasure associated with the journey to acheive that goal. A lot of times we get caught up in the pain and start feeling sorry for ourselves. But that’s what you get when you chase a goal. You made a choice, and you must live with the consequences.

You can think of athletics as kind of a practice in pain for purification. You accept the pain because if you can muster the strength to get through it and learn from it, you know it will make you better in the end.

So I’ve been great about stopping eating after 7:30pm, until last night. I took my massage therapist that works with me out for dinner, so I had some chamomile tea and an eggplant crepe around 8:30-9pm. I had a dream that I was two timing Will Ferrell and Jared Leto. I dumped Will Ferrell (at which point I learned he was already married and wasn’t wearing his ring) and things were going well with Jared Leto except he dressed like someone from the beatles and had the bowl-shaped haircut. Then I found out he had a penchant for wearing women’s brazierres and wearing makeup, so I had to say goodbye.

So, don’t eat after 7:30pm.