Quote of the Week

"Elevate. Each day, live to elevate yourself, each day elevate one person. Make elevation your religion and you shall reach infinity."

~Yogi Bhajan

Quote of the Week

"Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred."


— Zen masterThich Nhat Hanh (The Miracle of Mindfulness)

Quote of the Week - "Twenty-Four Brand-New Hours"

I've been reading the great Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh's amazing book, Peace is Every Step.  I'm only about halfway through, although it's fairly short and written in a very accessible style that makes for quick reading.  I'm taking my time, reading a few pages at a time, savoring them like fine wine, and trying to apply the concepts to daily life as I go.  He begins the book with these words that set the tone so well for all that follows:


"Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live.  What a precious gift!  We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy and happiness to ourselves and others.

     Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see.  The question is whether or not we are in touch with it.  We don't have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky.  We don't have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child.  Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy."   

Quote of the Week

"Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it is the axis
on which the world earth revolves
- slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future;
Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life."

~zen master Thich Nhat Hanh

Tuesday Quote of the Week

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

~Buddha

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"I run because it's so symbolic of life. You have to drive yourself to overcome the obstacles. You might feel that you can't. But then you find your inner strength, and realize you're capable of so much more than you thought."

~Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"Mind is the king of the senses.  One who has conquered his mind, senses, passions, thought and reason is a king among men.  He is fit for Raja Yoga, the royal union with the Universal Spirit.  He has Inner Light."

~B. K. S. Iyengar, "Light on Yoga"

Tuesday Quote of the Week

“The beauty of a lake reflects the beauty around it. When the mind is still, the beauty of the Self is seen reflected in it.”

~B.K.S. Iyengar

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light."

~Yogi Bhajan

Tuesday Quote of the Week - In Honor Of B.K.S. Iyengar's 92nd Birthday

"The rhythm of the body
the melody of the mind
and the harmony of the soul
create the symphony of life."

~B.K.S. Iyengar

Reposting this, one of my favorite quotes ever, to honor this day, the 92nd birthday of B.K.S. Iyengar, regarded as the world’s greatest living yoga master. Happy Birthday, Guruji!

I love how the triple metaphors of rhythm, melody and harmony so well fit the unique essence of body, mind and soul. Also how the three become as one in the activity of life. Namaste. :)

Tuesday Quote of the Week - The Sense of "I am" (Consciousness)

"The Sense of 'I am' (Consciousness)"


"When I met my Guru, he told me: 'You are not what you take yourself  to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense "I am," find your real Self.' I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon!

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.


I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and
joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence."

~Nisargadatta Maharaj

(Thanks to fellow runner, yogi and blogger Muriel at http://runnersmur.blogspot.com/ for posting this on her blog for me to find, borrow and pass on.)

Tuesday Quote of the Week - What is Meditation?

“When the past thought has ceased, and a future thought has not yet risen, isn’t there a gap? Well, prolong it. That’s meditation.”
  ~Jamyang Khyentse
    (Quoted in Elephant Journal)

Do you have a personal definition for meditation?

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"When he sees that the myriad beings
emanate from the One
and have their source as the One
that man gains absolute freedom."

~Bhagavad Gita, 13.30

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"The fact is that there is nothing more beautiful, more worthy or more conscious than you."

~ Yogi Bhajan

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame."


~B.K.S. Iyengar

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"The reason for self-awareness is to become self-creating."

~The Taichi Hearwork blog - http://taichiheartwork.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Quote of the Week - The Gayatri Mantra

As my last Silent Saturday feature, I simply posted a graphic of the Gayatri Yantra, a geometric design meant to visually convey the essence of the Gayatri Mantra.   It may be used to meditiate on while reciting the Gayatri Mantra.  This is the mantra, in Sanskrit:

Aum Bhur Bhuva Svah
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yo Naha Prachodayat

I find the literal English translation to be a little awkward, but there are a number of good interpretive translations that flow nicely and convey the mantra's essence.  I like this one by Swami Nardanand::

"On the absolute reality and its planes,
On that finest spiritual light,
We meditate, as remover of obstacles
That it may inspire and enlighten us."

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"Your mind is your servant, your body is your vehicle and your soul is your residence."

~Yogi Bhajan

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."



~Albert Einstein

Tuesday Quote of the Week

"Yoga is not the search for something, as though something is missing. Yoga is the celebration of life as it is freely given."

~Mark Whitwell