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Photo
8th January 2013
Into the Cold by Koston Photography on Flickr.
Downtown Chicago in February, 1990
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Photo
12th June 2012
Floating Bow by dingatx on Flickr.
far more powerful
“People need to understand the job that is confronting them in yoga. It is to be present as consciousness. Consciousness itself has no fear. It also has no one-sided attraction to anything. It simply is. When we remember that part of our nature, and do so as often as we can and perhaps one day continuously, life is joyful even when the bad presents itself. In part, we understand life as a play, which in Sanskrit is called the “lila” of the Divine, the sport of the Divine. And we find that what we overcome as our fears can become available as energy to do something constructive. Say you fall ill …. Now instead of worrying about it and fearing all kinds of negative, constricting type of response that suppresses our natural joy and energy —- instead of going into that, we laugh and in the open space see the real humor of our activity. Immediately, there is energy for the healing process. We can be constructive. Or we have a relationship that is difficult, say a person who is always bothering us in some way. Instead of fixating on the bother, we see that this person is a signal to us to overcome some negative emotional pattern. And in that way, we start realizing that this person is our greatest teacher. The Buddhists say your greatest enemy is your most wonderful teacher. Why? Because if we can see that, we liberate our own energy for the process of living.”
(Interview with Georg Feuerstein, appearing in Ascent Magazine)
