Lakshmi
is still with us at Shree, this week visiting as Kamala which means “lotus
dweller”, and she is closely associated with this resplendent flower which she
is often depicted sitting in. The image
of the lotus is one of the most powerful in Tantric and Buddhist
philosophy. The lotus flower is unique
in that it blossoms in murky swamps and ponds.
It rises from the muck at the bottom which it roots itself into, then
emerges into the muddy water as a bud, reaching upwards through the sludge
towards the light at the surface. When
it surfaces and hits air, the bud opens and reveals a beautiful, pure blossom,
untouched by all the muddiness it had to travel through to get there.
I
shared in my classes this week that my 2 older children are in the “no fair!”
phase of life. It seems to be their
response to just about everything I say.
My response is always, “Well, you’re right. But I’m not sure who told you it was going to be fair.” Life is not fair. It’s often challenging and mucky and
muddy. But the story of the lotus tells
us that we don’t have to stay there.
I
had a conversation this week with a friend who brought to light some issues I
have been avoiding dealing with for a while, and it forced me to have to look
at them. It definitely brought me down
into the muck. And yet, after the
initial hurting wore off, I realized that facing my shadow side is what will
move me forward. I’ve been avoiding the
muck and ironically that’s what got me stuck deeper in it. Now that I can acknowledge that I am there I can
make a plan to get out of it. That’s
when transformation happens.
Tantra
is non-dual system of yoga and life practice.
Meaning that what we are made of, the very essence of who we are, is the
same “stuff” that everything in the entire universe is made of, and that
“stuff” is nothing other than God*.
There is just one endless cycle and it runs through the entire universe,
that which we can see and that which we cannot.
So what does that mean in practical terms? That whatever the form, the substance is
divine. As the song says, God is in the
roses and the thorns, the mud and the lotus. At the sub-molecular level it all looks the
same. From the perspective of the Absolute
this is obvious. From the human
perspective, not always so easy.
It’s
been a challenging week for me. As I
sit and write I am making plans to attend the funeral tomorrow for the 24-year old
stepson of a mentor, friend and colleague who finally lost his years long, epic battle
with cancer. So incredibly not fair. It is often so hard to see the good and the beauty. And yet I know that it’s always my choice.
Whether it’s a challenging phone call or a funeral we can always seek the
light, in whatever teeny, tiny crack it might be coming through. It may
be that it’s not coming through at all, and we just have to remember it is
there and we will find it again.
All
this is not to say we seek out negative, challenging experiences, quite the
opposite. What it means is that we
accept all aspects of our lives, including those which are muddy, inconvenient,
uncomfortable, and unhappy as part of the whole, and yet always seek the light
and the ways we can blossom anyway. As
Sally Kempton says: “(May we) root ourselves in life’s muddy soil and use its
fertility as compost to blossom the soul.”
*(Yes,
the G word has appeared again! I try to
avoid this word, but it’s really just a word.
The creative force behind all of creation has other names too – energy,
source, absolute consciousness, love, the universe – but it’s just semantics. I am sticking with the G word for now; I hope
it doesn’t offend anyone. If it does,
please email or call me so we can chat more about it!).
Off the Mat:
Make
this poem by Erica Leibrandt your mantra this week:
No Mud, No Lotus
No mud, no lotus.
No noise, no silence.
No silence, no song.
No bitter, no sweet.
No low, no high.
No old, no young.
No weak, no strong.
No ugly, no beautiful.
No broken, no whole.
No black, no white.
No white, no color.
No missing, no found.
No fall, no rise.
No work, no play.
No death, no birth.
No mud, no lotus.
On the Mat:
In
my classes this week we worked with hip openers, towards variations of what
else but padmasana, lotus pose. We worked to externally rotate (or outer
spiral in Anusara-speak) the bent knee leg (or legs), which causes the sitting
bone of that leg to lengthen downwards (rooting into the muck) and “scoop”
forwards towards the top of the thigh bone, allowing the knee to widen out and
move towards the back plane of the body, and the front of the hip to blossom
open.
For the
Anusara junkies:
Open
To Grace:
Take
a breath and fill up with wholehearted acceptance of your whole life, every
blessing and every challenge, and know that it is all the same continuum.
Muscular
Energy:
Firm
your muscles and affirm with radical acceptance the muck and the blossom, the
thorn and the rose.
Inner
Spiral:
Widen
the inner thighs back and apart to widen your perspective.
Open
up a space in the hips by widening the inner thighs to let some light into the
dark, muddy places.
Outer
Spiral:
Scoop
your (front leg or bent knee) sit-bone down and anchor yourself in the muck of
life with radical acceptance.
Scoop
your (front leg or bent knee) sit-bone down, rooting yourself into the swampy
mire knowing that seed will blossom someday.
Organic
Energy:
Rise
from the mud and flourish
