Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Sadhguru




Sadhguru

In 2017 when I visited south India I stayed for a few days at the Isha facility that Sadhguru calls home. It might be called a combination of ashram, temple, school, gathering place, center of enlightenment, or service opportunity.  Sadhguru, the author of Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, has a very large fallowing, both in India and in the U.S. where he has an ashram in TN.  Find our more   https://isha.sadhguru.org/us-en/isha-usa/
He has an easy fluid speaking style and many talks posted in youtube.

Here are Sadhguru quotes that I like:

There is no such thing as having achieved your fullest potential. As a human being, 
you are a limitless possibility.

If you evolve within you, there will be no pride, no prejudice. 
You will perform action out of pure, absolute sense.

If your goal is Ultimate Liberation, every breath, every step, every beat of your heart 
should become conscious.

How effective you are in life is essentially determined by your level of clarity and balance.

  
Yoga is about attaining to absolute Balance, piercing Clarity, and an inexhaustible Exuberance. With this, you are immensely fit for life.

You come into this world with nothing and you go empty-handed. 
The wealth of life lies in how you allow its experiences to enrich you.


The source of creation is subtle. Only if you make your body and mind shut up, it will speak.


When sounds are in tune, they become music. Out of tune, they become noise. It is the same with you. When all aspects of you are in tune, you become music. Out of tune, you become noise.


Truth is not hidden – you are hiding from it.


Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect. Our lives become beautiful 
because we put our heart into whatever we do.


More Sadhguru Quotes

Whether you experience stress, anger, fear, or any other kind of negativity,
there is only one basic cause – being ignorant of your inner Nature.

Yoga is the technology of upgrading, activating, and refining your inner energies
for the highest possibilities.

If you break the shell of your personality, you will simply be presence – as life is,
as God is, just a Presence.

Once you go beyond the compulsive, cyclical nature of existence, life becomes spectacular.

Hatha Yoga should not be taught as an exercise form but as a live process;
then asanas will lead to ecstatic states.

A fundamental flaw in human nature is we try to enshrine our differences without being aware of the essential unity of existence.”



Monday, May 21, 2018

The Question


  The Question

 There are transitions,
  borders, and territories.

There are memories,
  inclinations, and intentions.

There are shifts,
  contexts, and foundations.

Each has a divine intention for you -
  to be with, learn from, and move on.

Can you feel all of it?
  the cosmic interplay
    delight and sorrow,
    beauty and desire,
    purpose and pulse,
    chaos and creation, 

A tapestry of threads,
  a tensegrity of wholeness,
  a life in discovery.

Beyond descriptions and definitions,
  in the language of wonder,
  there is an arising.  
Can you feel it?

What does your body love like
  the wild geese where there is a calling
  for connection to all things alive?

Can you live and the love the question?

With fearless abandon can you fly to the horizon?


             richard hammer 
                   5-11-18

(Inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese”)

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

A Flow in All of Life



There is a flow in all of life that invites opening.

It seeks a balancing and thriving.

It knows itself as energy and presence,
as dynamic form and formless creation.

You are that flow.
Breathe. Feel. Be. Know.

~~~

Practice Qigong and open to the Qi in you and around you.




Friday, April 6, 2018

Spiraling Form



     Spiraling Form

There is beauty, grace, and joy
in this moment. 

There is the eternal, and the passing
in this moment.

There is the remembered kiss of a lover
and the desire for another in this moment.

There is the immense quiet of deep space
and the ringing of temple bells in this moment

I am being held captive by all of it
and have willingly surrendered to it.

Each sigh a release.
Each laugh a discovered joy.
Each smile a connection.
Each touch an affirmation.

The bamboo flute plays its song
in my heart.
The sun rising awakens
my inner fires.
The passing river speaks
it wisdom to my ears.

I will listen.
I will feel.
I will be.

One light on the spiraling form.

           richard hammer
               3-19-18
           Cape Coral, FL

April is National Poetry Month. In preparation consider reading or listening to a read poem each morning. Why? Because poetry invites us to consider mystery and meaning. It can be a door way in or out.... and we are always coming or going, or being present.
For poems read by their authors, go to - https://onbeing.org/project/poetry-radio-project/ -
For interviews by Kritsta Tippit, go to - https://onbeing.org/series/podcast/
Your Life Is a Poem – Krista talks to Naomi Shihab Nye (3-15-18 On Being)
Naomi's new volume is Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners - 2018

April is National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month
It is invitation to open into words.

I have followed and greatly appreciated Oriah Mt Dreamer's writings for years. She shares her journey with great athenticity and vulnerability.  In other words, she is "real".

The Green Bough  -  Waking Up with Joy -  05 Apr 2018

“Some days, grace saturates my dreams and follows me into wakefulness. And I am quietly alert, smiling even as I open my eyes filled with a joy that does not deny the pain of the world or the trials and tribulations of one small human being. And I am filled with awe at having a life to live, of being an ensouled body/embodied soul.

I cannot make this happen- it is a gift that cannot be earned. And, of course, there are other mornings, mornings when I wake up worrying for the world and those I love, trying to pull away from small aches or searing pain, wanting to lodge a complaint with Anyone-In-Charge.

Remembering this makes me smile this morning as I whisper into the half-light, "Thank you." ~Oriah



~~~~~ 

  Did You Notice

The bird over your shoulder singing invites you to love.
The unique gift that you give is one of beauty and presence.
The grace that you are invites in union, touch, and flow.
The letting go of overt striving invites in receiving.
Open and allow yourself to rest in the generosity of your being.


       by richard hammer  4-4-18



Poetry As A Gate




Poetry As A Gate
April 2018 Creativity Speaking


Poetry is the opportunity to explore the familiar with new eyes.

Poetry is the opening of consciousness for experiencing the gift
of life more deeply.

Poetry is the sampling and savoring of language, emotions, and
the many landscapes of being.

Your writing of poetry invites in the muse who has been assigned
to you to create with language.

There are musical muses, and other artistic muses.
Each needs to be invited in.  Some need to sit by you in silence,
others in nature, or perhaps while running down the road.

You will know when the muse taps you on the shoulder and compels
you to place words to page.  Your muse will remind you to carry pen
and paper at all times to record the imperatives of your insights.

Pause now.  Listen.  And then write.

Pour out what is coming to make space
for receiving what is to come next.

Let it be a wild, fierce flow or a gentle, surprise in what appears.

There will be a beat, pulse, rhythm in your unique style.
Accept what arises.

The urge to write will rise.
Resist it not. Let it come.

Let it be an invocation, an utterance, a celebration, a declaration,
a cleansing, an offering.  Let it come.


richard hammer

3-31-18



Tuesday, March 6, 2018

What does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher?

As I went through older files this week I came upon a response I submitted to a website that publishes current thinking and questions about yoga - It's All YOga Baby.  Here is what I found  --

What does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher?

At the beginning of April 2014 on the “its all yoga baby” web site (iayb) there was a request by the site manager for readers, meaning yoga teachers, to respond to the question of “what does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher”.
Here was my posted response:

Being a yoga teacher means to dwell in G.R.A.C.E.
G - Gratitude for what has been given me that I might serve others.
R - Real and raw, authentic being from the marrow of one's bone.
A - Awareness of what is arising, what is here, what is dissolving.
C - Centeredness and compassion.
E - Energy, the cultivation of which is aligned movement in all the Koshas (bodies).
- it is showing up as best you can, again, and again, ….....

~~~
Apparently the manger liked it enough to send me a prize – a copy of
Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship - by Donna Farhi.
~~~

May we all bloom and blossom into the fullness of our expression as
a teacher and student of yoga, and lover of life.

May we remember that our students are our teachers.

May we honor all paths and traditions.

May our dharma path be made ever clear
as we partner with love and joy
to shine our light more brightly
to bless all beings.