A Plumbless Sea

2012-02-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

. . .what if there was nothing to get? nothing to get right. nothing to get wrong. nothing to figure out. what if it's only YOU, and this world, and the idea that the rite of your birth was the gift the universe intended to unwrap for you. . . . .what if it's just finding our way to that tipping point where we fall in love with life all over again ♥ again ♥ again♥ and forever again♥ imagine that.

A Practice of Devotion

2012-02-05T19:48:00.001-08:00

a practice of devotion : ♥
we move in honor of those who cannot move
we breathe for those who do not breathe so well anymore
and we act for the sake of those who are not free to act.

George you were in my every breath tonight.

stillness :a: beckoning

2012-01-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

a beckoning

within the folds of your breath,

the most wise,

and most potent mysteries

of who you are . . . unfolding

stillness :is: moving,

stillness :is: seeking

stillness :is: you, the pulse

.the majesty of your being

(...

2011-09-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

Find me today in the folds of language. Where I make my offerings of the Heart, loving deeply the wisdom of the Trees and easing myself into a body that lives in the majesty of its Secrets.

Loving Fall.

2011-09-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Fall is a beautiful time to find amidst the passions of the heart, the flame of recognition. In the waves of our breath and the wisdom of our bodies we touch upon a very potent understanding. A natural elegance that lives in your eyes, and deep inside your belly. Soften this Fall. Come into the depths of your practice. Allow the way of Grace to Open up inside you and hold you awake in the balance of pulsation. Let the practice of yoga expand you across into boundaries of your innermost heart and receive the way the world offers its gifts to you.

Yoga is a practice of learning to hold together the deeper intuitive power of self-knowledge within the greater context of how we move in the ways of the world. Step into the way Consciousness holds you, dive deep into what you already know to be true inside and begin to create the ways for wisdom, vision and beauty to loom a in the world around you.

2011-08-08T17:58:00.001-07:00

It is of the marrow from which I speak.

Wisdom, Bleed

2011-08-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when we live in something we don’t recognize the wisdom that is there. When we start to look we begin to see what can sometimes feel like a frightening reality. The truth of our sovereignty and that Life is in our hands and no others. We cross a threshold.

In the raw vulnerable folds of our skin we see, feel, hear consciousness rub our being together and apart. Like granules of sand pressing up against another to yield tiny luminous pearls of reflection. Holding truth and deceit, light and shadow, in tandem.

Lying stealing cheating faking disowning owning hiding the Self until one day we decide to show up, naked, in the hide of Love for our lives. For the soul that governs them. And for the Hope that burns. Our participation is required. Life is a Practice

Patience is a Pause in Motion

2011-06-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

In the sweet sigh of a day

we have found

again

what we often swear

we will never forget

In the time that it takes to notice

these delicacies

we recover the propensity for insight

Imagination Swells.

Healing Gathers
It Builds.

In a moment we can come to recognize

what is deeply familiar, radical
and even invisible.

we find here in this moment
what is meaningful

what is forgettable

and

sometimes what is never forgettable.

In these moments we spare almost nothing.

In these moments we see we are free.

In these moments we have arrived.

Here we are Home.

Pondi, 2011

2011-02-21T10:10:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure if the loving part ever dies... or how it might. But, there is, and I suppose there always will be, a moment when your heart decides to change. A moment when the resistance of not wanting to let go is recognized and in the impossibility of it all finds a way to Allow for something new to take shape inside. A rebirth, a Hope.

I think it has little to do with how much or how little one tries, but more to do with the sheer inability for a thriving body to accept the past as present. A condition of the mind that if unnoticed can hold the Soul of a heart captive, unnecessarily.

How does the present moment to touch us? change us? evolve us? Do we let it? and when we do, if we do, what does Presence feel like?

Allow, allow,

allow ...

a steady stream

of conscious Body

Breathing

guide

you

gracefully

into the pulse

of a

stirring,

hissing,

Heart

..beating

aloud

that Sound

in you

that

insists,

insists.

here, now, with, me, is, you, to open, quietly in the arms of Hope we are held and in the sun we are always

still shining

Anjali Mudra: the Heart's Whisper

2010-12-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

Everyday from the inner world of our hearts we attempt to understand and express who we are within the greater context of the world. Through Yoga (relationship) Mudra (gesture) and Mantra (sound and syllable) we create ways for our inner worlds to build a reality we hope for. When we call upon these prayers of soul-making we ignite their qualitative powers from deep within us and through the physical expressions of our bodies (Asana) we manifest the spirit of soul-song.

May we turn towards the flame of our hearts, let the fire breathe and burn, may we listen deeply, heeding the whispers of our deepest wishes and further transform the creative fire within into a light that can nourish, nurture and evolve.

Bow in and listen
she will tell you what you are made of

Bow in and listen
she will tell you what you are made for

Bow in and listen
she will show you fear

Bow in and listen
she will remind you of strength

Bow in and listen
she will reveal what you are seeking

Bow in and listen
she will invite you deeper Inside

Bow in and listen
and she will bring you back Home

Bow in and listen
and she will whisper the secrets of the Universe

Not for the Faint of Heart

2010-10-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

"If you are really listening,
if you are awake to the poignant beauty of the world,
your heart breaks regularly.

In fact you heart is made to break
its purpose is to burst open again and again
so that it can hold ever more wonder."

Quote from Andrew Harvey

From "Women Who Run With the Wolves", Clarissa Pinkola Estes PHD

2010-10-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

"Some say the soul informs the body. But what if we were to imagine for a moment that the body informs the soul, helps it adapt to mundane life, parses, translates, gives the blank page, the ink and the pen with which the soul can write upon our lives. Suppose the body is a God in its own right, a teacher, a mentor, a certified guide... listen true to the body as a powerful and holy being.."

Incredible Beauty:

2010-09-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

murakami-takes-versailles

How Curious We are in the Forest

2010-09-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hotel California (This One's for You, Kim!)

2010-08-11T13:19:00.001-07:00

Last week I was in California. Atop the Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe at The Wanderlust Festival. Some of the most prominent yoga teachers in the world and a whole lot of enthusiastic practitioners gathered together to celebrate, with hearts, minds and bodies, the gift of YOGA. The level of engagement that was generated as we practiced raised the bar in terms of connectivity. It certainly ignited a new caliber of quality and inspiration in me alone, so I can only imagine how many more hearts were struck by the magnificence of what kind of kinetic charge people can manifest when they come together.

Every moment pulsed with a deep presence churning time into active resonance. Betwixt those mountains, within the Valley of Squaw, every moment was an opportunity to reflect upon and honor the gift of life. Nature, music, movement, breath and bodies merging, pulsing, pushing the boundaries of Now into More. A kind of momentum that catapulted all of us onto a new found stage of social and global change, humanitarianism, awareness and artistic ingenuity. See photos and Video here: http://www.wanderlustfestival.com/

The auspicious power of consciousness gathering itself as the very substance of our experience left me in awe. The days of gathering hearts, practicing yoga and cultivating mindful meditations thrilled and illuminated us all, but for me it was the awesome undercurrent of nature's power that had the deepest physical impact. Just a few days away from the urban terrain of concrete and brick and into the breathtaking landscape of mountainous canyons, pines trees and boulders with solid earth beneath my feet brought me home inside; softened me to the point of total surrender as mother nature herself melted me right back into the guttural throes of my own eagerly loving heart.

As I came back to Jersey City I received this note as a reminder:

"Be certain it is your birthright to be united with the fulfilling experiences that will enhance your life and deepen your sense of meaning."

May we remember that life is always inviting us to step deeper inside ourselves to discover and live our fullest potential. Even in the simple beatings of our own heart we have a great capacity that longs to emancipate and empower, to stretch open the boundaries of reality with the adventurous spirit of possibility.

May we cultivate the courage it takes to lead with our hearts, evolve our practice beyond the mat and become earthen beacons of light that radiate forth blessings of peace, beauty, intelligence and love.

On the Wind : Within Mountains

2010-08-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

It is in subtlety we hear Silence present Herself to us as language.

Herein you will find Her refined as poetry. The breath of yourself
dipping farther into the delicacies of Savor. Carving Earth into Time

A mouth swallowing you whole inside a breach of contact and then
a marriage of souls.

Herein lies the majesty of wind, the welcome of mountains and the loyalty of gravity rocking you back inside love

Holding you
close
open
and defined

It is here you will know you have gone farther than before.

white peach seed

2010-07-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

Loving the Little Seeds

2010-07-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

What is : becoming conscious : refined is bliss

Everything starts in a seed. Before there is a word, a sound, a gesture, a touch there is the seed of want's intention writhing awake beneath the surface.

Bija is the sanskirt word for seed it is seen as a metaphor for the origin and cause of everything. When bija meets breath through lips there is sound.

Our own heart silently beating the seeds of want awake.

Time is encouraging. Over time soil nudges seeds to flower. Forming seemingly simple notions into intricate, fascinating forms of further complexity. These flowers are the Beauty we witness from how we see what the world is offering us. Complexity is just another way we can experience the wonder of diversity as Beauty in the world. As we breathe the simple seeds of our being, each and every cell, is nourished, supported, and loved, evolving and maturing into an astonishing opening of greater complexity. Practice, as we know through Yoga, fuels (breath-mind body-heart) and heats these little seeds of simplicity, the raw ingredients, cooking them to perfection as they open from inside our hearts. Yoga then becomes our gateway, between how we carry the seeds of inside to outside. These movements from inside to out, from receptivity to creativity, is what we call Mudra, how a gesture is held in the world. It is these gestures that reflect the astonishing magic of how grace resides within.

The Moon

2010-06-28T17:53:00.001-07:00

"After writing poems all day. I went off to see the moon on the piney hill. Far in the woods I sit down against the pine. The moon has her porches turned to face the light. But the deep part of her house is in the darkness." ~Robert Bly

2010-06-10T13:30:00.001-07:00

Complexity is the diversity we experience as Beauty in the world.

2010-06-10T13:29:00.001-07:00

Opening To Grace is a life long love affair with Time.

2010-05-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

"To give generously is to receive the blessing of that offering."

The other night upon slipping into the covers and taking a sip of tea, I noticed the note on the end of the tea bag that said: "Your greatness is not what you have, but what you give".

In Sanskrit the word for studentship is "adhikara", but the word also means "qualifications" or "gifts". As Adhikara the practice of yoga becomes a process of self-study, of refining and qualifying one's own gifts. These gifts, as I will call them here, are textures of the self that naturally express who we are. To know your gifts, to authenticate them by way of your experience through making offerings, expands and adds value to the greater community of human hearts. Yoga is the studious process by which we come to understand what these gifts are and the depth to their richness.

The practice of Yoga both as a physical practice and as self-reflection offers us every opportunity to refine the gifts inherent to us by the way we discover ourselves and make offerings through the genrative power of love. The more clearly we align with who we are the more powerful our gifts become. Yoga is a practice of authenticating who you are by way of being genuinely how you are. It is a practice of evolving the nature of your heart, of owning your feelings and thoughts and bringing those individual gifts to light in all the ways you hold yourself in relationship to the world.

May we come to recognize and honor who we are in the generous context of our gifts. May the offerings we make of ourselves authentically reflect the voice within our heart and enrich the greater community of human hearts with luminous stars for selves.

With Adoration for this gift we call Life.

James Stephens

2010-05-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

"The only barrier is our readiness"

John O'Donohue

2010-05-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

"Poetry is the language of Silence"

W.B. Yeats

2010-05-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

"That stern color and that delicate line that (is) our secret discipline."

Inside Truth

2010-04-10T17:37:00.001-07:00

Last week in the middle of a luscious three hour practice my teacher asked the question: "Where are you in relationship to your Truth?" Stopped and stunned and smiling I thought: What a wonderful and brilliant question. Shouldn't we ask ourselves that everyday?!

More than anything that question ignited another which was: What is it like to Be Inside Truth? As I thought about this the week through I came to realize that Truth is more than just an idea, it is a quality of the body. Truth is texture, time and feeling. Truth hums, moves and breathes. Truth has a pulse! And as we churn and deepen our yoga practice we notice the opportunities that allow us to hum move breathe (and even sometimes groan!) with it.

Truth delights in expanding the very matter of our bones. It excites and quells the body all at once. It is that impulse of desire that is consciousness itself to catalyst and set forth a radiant trembling of sheer bliss.

When we stand in Truth, we know it. Yoga is that invitation into cultivating a relationship with what it means to be exactly yourself, in your entirety, in all the ways you are yourself! It is a process by which we navigate the freedoms and intricacies of body heart mind and engage the gifts of who we are as we are becoming them. It is a process that holds us in full embrace with the very Truth of being alive.

May we always walk in the beauty and light of our Truth, breathe with our bellies wide and deep and enunciate ourselves with full knowing that we are elegant Hearts beating the sweetness of Grace herself.

the beating of my heart

2010-04-10T17:27:00.001-07:00

move,breathe,wish,dream,speak,move,breathe,wish,dream,speak,move,breathe, wish,dream,speak,move,breathe,wish,dream,speak,move, breathe,wish,dream,speak,move,breathe,wish,dream,speak,move, breathe,wish,dream,speak,move......

Sweet Tiger-Pawed One

2010-03-08T10:22:00.001-08:00

Like a tiger
I chase and swat after pretty butterflies
running through the forest
until I find the very tall trees
and climb to the top

I unearth the lotus beams, gently
and with a soft touch of my lips, smell them

excitedly I return,
before the foot of the sweet one
who sounds the rush of a midnight's shimmering stream

marble walls house a heart's beat

2010-02-28T17:32:00.000-08:00

a subtle sound
wrapping you inside

the fluency of your being

enunciating

you.

all full elaborate utter

tat. tat. tat. tat.

you.

undulating imprint: body: smell, taste, sound

finally,
seduced

linger there as if you were in a dream

breathe,

                          further in

let her move in you as you would with out a cause to

             hovering
                     spacious

relentless
in between the pillars of heart

...

it's a bellowing sound,

the moan that comes,

when we’ve heard the inside of the deep
it’s a long slow hummming merging itself into grammars,
ushering syllables

stillness that explodes in a kiss

...

from our dreams
we become what words are

forming the verbs of being

we meet, we coil, we weave,
we dance, make love and breathe and forget the end on purpose

...

a marksman of words drinking from a cup of time
waiting to hear
what the heart wants to say

I am the garland
of golden leaves being woven

sung and sounded in her
memory
a being of wakefulness
of being awake

...

a heart’s coming to be:

a pure face baring itself wild in the throes of grace

...

The Swallowing Energy

2010-02-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

She dissolves you whole

inviting you back into time

the point

of the

primal energies

holding you womblike)

in all her light, all at once
she is the dark swallowing energy

bathing you

urging you

: come near :

it is wise to receive

move deeper, act with fervor, know what you are made of

mark your self beyond the mere surface of things

swim in

wade the intricacies of your birth-rite

dream your wildest imaginations

churn the seas of embodiment

breathe the torrent effulgently

radiate the currents

...

a flicker of the eyes, a cursive form

she is the original gesture of the heart

a look of love

coalescing essence

draw near to the mouth of her and you will find the threshold of time, origin and space

awaken her

invoke her

let her loll you back inside

into the tempest

the storm of your heart

2010-02-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

In the Belly of the Stars

the storm clouds loom, calling the hidden shadow selves

a dark ocean of Kali moves inside, oh the waves

like a panther she yawns, swallowing, allowing

I subside and bow

salubriously, i am moving in

we made way, as the seas opened
i surrendered,
slowly

awake into the deep belly
of winter

wherein I could hear

the thousand petaled hums

of a silent pulse beating hope awake

A Keeper of Light

2010-01-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

..practice…

always

touching, tempting the boundary of eternity
to open
again

each time
meeting thresholds,
questions that ask
what holds us to-gether?
what pulses at the seam

and
then
there is a breath

one to remind
one to guide
and
another to
touch

upon

an utterly natural love
the very fabric of consciousness
so true,

that I can no longer dismiss the calling
and
with a gentle nudge
the very marrow of my bones
holds a seat
for the light that falls

luminous

from
within

Loving the Little Lightning Bolts

2010-01-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

May we walk through the world like beautiful little lightning bolts

finding the charge in the ground we walk

tapping into that current of grace

lighting up the the sky (and everyone we meet)

with our hearts

2010-01-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

when we ground into what we love

we are already amongst

the vast open sky of being

plunging

further

towards

elegance

of heart

Seedlings

2010-01-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

Crafting tiny seedlings from

inside

and then

cast them

out

side
in to

the
world

as light, as time, as resonant sound

as a hum would be

From the vast potential

that is

everything

i am

unknown to known

(and back again...

crossing a threshold

of

becoming

wrapping around this

a force divine

that is
as

is

savoring the very
movements

Crescent Moon and Jupiter

2009-12-27T05:36:00.000-08:00

as much as the night sky holds

we are just as vast

as dark

as dense

as mysterious

beyond what we can comprehend

there are worlds within and forever

each cell : a star

pulsing

every breath : a movement

a gesture

of the universe that is you

2009-12-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

Willingly,

walk Open

hold yourself a sail for

the

winds

of desire

and

hear

the mysteries

that echo

that

guide

voice

from

inside
.

attentively

honor

even the minutest aspirations

bring them into the world

give them space

give them home

give them body

give them action

give them voice

give them their due

and receive the resonating

air

of you

2009-12-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

It is here, we begin

again.

we redefine

the origins

we come back,

not stopping

unstoppable

t/here

textures.

touches.

tongues.

tingle.

open.

finding you/i here.

again.

you and i here again?

yes,

it is here

isn't it?

how,

we begin all over

how that brings us back

to the lineage of ourselves again and again and again.

begging the question : who are you?

take a step towards me
towards the unfettered ground

Homeward Bound

2009-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

To Enter= We must Open

To See=We must Breathe

To Experience=We must Move

To Love=We must Receive

In our practice we come home to ourselves again and again and again.

Each time we practice we redefine how we experience home as a body, a collective of relationships, of feelings, of connections.

Each practice is a way to shape and cull the meaning behind each of our understandings of what home is to us on the inside.

We know this when we sleep. We know this when we dream. We know this when we wake. We know this when we breathe.

Our breath is the space that holds the invitation:

homeward bound.

The breath asks us, simply, without hesitation, to step inside her currents and receive the full descent of her divine wind,

sculpting

shaping

every move we make.

When we come home inside, to ourselves, we prepare and till a ground.

An anchor is planted and we ourselves become capable of receiving grace.

hrdaya (:) heart

2009-11-16T08:44:00.000-08:00

amidst all her fractures
appears the single sword
holding at the seam
describing a place
it illumines a latitude
that
through all the winds of deserts' storms
without effort
this sword secures
desire in name
a silent weight in a center place
commanding the territory of space and time
into open bounds of hope

a humble gesture of the heart

2009-10-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

to dwell in the utmost of reality
is to recognize that our earthly desires and experiences
are the very manifestations
of the divine's highest intention
to embody
the more clearly we know ourselves
in desire
the more authentic we become
in body
the more we are present from day to day
and
the more the secrets of the universe are revealed to us
through the lens of our own heart

Be with the Tides

2009-10-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

Breath is the body's physical manifestation of
compassion. Turn in towards it and you will know your capacity

As If the First Time Remembered

2009-09-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

a web of abundance
a web of fullness
that is what upholds
everything

each time we come back

we draw in
a breath
place a hand
exhale

move a limb
extend a pose

we tap into that web of radiant light

Fullness: a Remembrance: a Practice

2009-09-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

To Not Separate
First
is to Remember
Fullness

Practice Re-Connecting
inwardly
and you will see
Relationship
expand

In all your endeavors, risks, speeches, hands
offer IT fully

and see what changes

In One Sigh We Can Learn Everything

2009-09-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

The crest of the exhale
reaches the skin
intimately inviting us inward
bringing us the recognition
of a conscious threshold of change

decisions to be made

a space waiting
for
us

to throb, breathe, speak

Inspired By: Mundaka Upanishads

2009-09-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

"By energism of consciousness Brahman is massed from that matter is born and from matter Life + Mind + the Worlds" ~ Mundaka Upanishads

Release Is the Nature of the Self

2009-09-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

When we settle the vibrant matter of ourselves inward
we open to the nature of release

we hug into the core of who we are
(breath to muscle) (skin to bone)
and wake the santuary of self

each time we begin again
to inhabit the home of who we are

at home in ourselves
we dial in
to a great cause of pulsation

beautiful!

2009-09-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcqvlJIjh9g&feature=response_watch

my new favorite thing.

ah dbrk

2009-09-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

"To consider that our mortal embodiment is not only yoga's goal but also the very revelation we seek" DBRK

Practice Asks Us Into a Mystery

2009-09-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

When we begin listening we start to notice the subtlety.

We remember much more than we had anticipated.

We pause and hear the nature of an echo from deep inside
and step in towards a low base hum

we witness a reflection shimmering back at us

and in a moment of gratitude we begin to appreciate the art of listening.

In a World of Agency

2009-09-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

In a world of agency and performance
every moment is an opportunity to open the door into the churning point

again, again and again
to recognize and reveal ourselves
in the essence of who we are
each time we take a breath in.

oh Albert

2009-09-01T10:36:00.000-07:00

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." Albert Einstein

Touch, Taste, Smell

2009-08-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

Each time we breathe in, touch, taste, smell the world we press open the boundary of how we know
our skin expands
our knowing opens

we listen to the great universe

But it is our willingness to remain open to imagination that affords us the luxurious space of discovery
and shape what we believe is possible.

working on adaptability.... a continual remembrance

2009-02-06T16:15:00.001-08:00

Become the desire you seek

hold your intention longer than a moment

and balance in liquidity

We Are Syllables of Beauty

2008-11-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

in a moment of risk
a syllable of beauty
broke into Time

forming a movement of breadth

at its core
a heart

wanting towards the embrace
of all that is without
measure