Composing Compost
Curating compost is necessary for any spiritual growth. Start by taking all the scraps from your kitchen — leftovers from past relationships, sour fruit, rinds from old projects, crusty traumas, rotten ideals and scraps of dreams unfulfilled — and bury them into your heap. It takes a lifetime to build a fertile compost, rich …
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The Big Dig
A yoga practice is like an archeological dig. Each day, you have to get out your pick-axe and shovel and do excavation work. In the early years of practice, you hack away at the surface layer of big, tight muscles. Later, you learn to proceed slowly through layers where precious …
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Burn Baby Burn
The best way to make progress on the path is to completely exhaust yourself. Like wring yourself out, turn yourself upside down, lay yourself bare. It is like running a marathon. When you hit the 18 mile mark, your mind goes blank and you see all bodies, all colors, all the …
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Born on the Day of the Dead
Today, I reflect back on the strange and wondrous coincidence to have been born on el Dia de Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Some would say it is not, however coincidence, but rather some providence, mapped out by the constellations of stars and influenced by the planetary pull of certain …
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Strange Wonder
Transitioning from a routine of certainty to a place of not knowing is an arduous and daunting task. At some point, the spiritual path requires a leap into the unknown outside the framework of the familiar. Moving into unchartered territory demands that we trust, have courage, and be willing to …
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Renew, Rejuvenate, Rejoice
This is a time of ritual opening. The world knows what to do… the daffodils shoot upward, the insects hatch, lizards crawl out of their dens. And the prayers. In the still moments the soft prayers come, they pass over each of us like snippets of a new song, or …
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The Bright Side of the Sun
In the face of the fast-moving Coronavirus, all of us are no doubt experiencing creeping pangs of fear. Anxiety crawls through our gut, and dread lodges in our shoulders and neck. Surya and I are worried for our families and members of our community. Fear is palpable on the street …
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Bearing Witness
To All Concerned, Yesterday it was declared that we are mandated to stay inside for the entire month of April; that is another four weeks. And what about May and June? How can we see this through? I feel at a loss myself, and wonder if I should wile away …
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Realigning to the Cosmic Order of Things
Christian mystics talk about “fasting of the heart” in their postures of solitude and time in communion with a divine order. Removed from the bustle of the marketplace and in isolation, this “fasting” is a time of reflection and being in the presence of a great wonder. Now, as the …
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