Breath, Desire, and How To Open The Heart

As we breathe is it possible for us to die with every breath? Can we allow there to be a release that cascades throughout our physiological system that ensues with the termination of each breath? Can we breath in such a way that our eyes become like a crystalline still pools of water? Can we, even as we are stuck in traffic, waiting in line, or when our kids are screaming their heads off continue to breathe in this way?

Strangely, by watching the unfolding currents of the breath and the continuous flowering of sensations that accompany each cycle we are slowly able to disentangle the fixity of our labels for things and the things as they are themselves--the fixity of our labels of how things are or we think they ought to be slowly dissolves. As thought structures begin to dissolve we can, if we are attentive with soft eyes, open ears and a vacuous palate, develop a relationship with the oceanic force that connects all things and is the energy of desire that drives and directs our lives.

This force, says Lama Yeshe, is the wellspring of energy that we must draw upon and direct towards awakening, or enlightenment. Otherwise, this energy will inevitably orient itself towards the unquenchable desires the are limited to the world of NAMA and RUPA, or NAME and FORM. Yoga of course is that ultimately satiating experience that comes from embracing the totality of our world in all of its forms, names, their interconnections, and the sparkling hollowness that lies at their core. Yoga is not limited to the shells of things and the names that we give them. From brushing our teeth, to surfing The Web, to calling our friends, to driving to work and sharing moments with loved ones, this energy of desire is pulling us ever forward like a great and surging tidal wave. In fact, it is this perpetuity of desire that enables us to become fountainheads of positive change in the world around us and to become beacons to light for those who have lost their way in the dark. And through the cultivation this energy and working tirelessly for the sake of others, we find what is means to live with a truly open heart.

Ornate Hawk-Eagle

The Shape of the Universe

One physicists idea of the great meta-structure of the universe, and perhaps also the structure our our energetic hearts.

A reminder for all who dwell in the urban jungle

(courtesy National Geographic)

Serpent Power-Shakti

Unknown species of asian pit-viper (perhaps a Wragler's Pit-Viper)
(courtesy of National Geographic)

May the People of Tibet once again live free.

A Prayer Composed by
His Holines Tenzin Gyatso The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet

Honoring and Invoking the Great Compassion
of the Three Jewels; the Buddha, the Teachings,
and the Spiritual Community

O Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and disciples
of the past, present, and future:
Having remarkable qualities
Immeasurably vast as the ocean,
Who regard all helpless sentient beings
as your only child;
Please consider the truth of my anguished pleas.

Buddha's full teachings dispel the pain of worldly
existence and self-oriented peace;
May they flourish, spreading prosperity and happiness through-
out this spacious world.
O holders of the Dharma: scholars
and realized practitioners;
May your ten fold virtuous practice prevail.

Humble sentient beings, tormented
by sufferings without cease,
Completely suppressed by seemingly endless
and terribly intense, negative deeds,
May all their fears from unbearable war, famine,
and disease be pacified,

To freely breathe an ocean of happiness and well-being.
And particularly the pious people
of the Land of Snows who, through various means,
Are mercilessly destroyed by barbaric hordes
on the side of darkness,
Kindly let the power of your compassion arise,
To quickly stem the flow of blood and tears.

Those unrelentingly cruel ones, objects of compassion,
Maddened by delusion's evils,
wantonly destroy themselves and others;
May they achieve the eye of wisdom,
knowing what must be done and undone,
And abide in the glory of friendship and love.

May this heartfelt wish of total freedom for all Tibet,
Which has been awaited for a long time,
be spontaneously fulfilled;
Please grant soon the good fortune to enjoy
The happy celebration of spiritual with temporal rule.

O protector Chenrezig, compassionately care for
Those who have undergone myriad hardships,
Completely sacrificing their most cherished lives,
bodies, and wealth,
For the sake of the teachings, practitioners,
people, and nation.

Thus, the protector Chenrezig made vast prayers
Before the Buddhas and Bodhisativas
To fully embrace the Land of Snows;
May the good results of these prayers now quickly appear.
By the profound interdependence of emptiness
and relative forms,

Together with the force of great compassion
in the Three Jewels and their Words of Truth,
And through the power
of the infallible law of actions and their fruits,
May this truthful prayer be unhindered
and quickly fulfilled.
-----------------------
This prayer, Words of Truth, was composed by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, on 29 September 1960 at his temporary headquarters in the Swarg Ashram at Dharamsala, Kangra District, Himachal State, India. This prayer for restoring peace, the Buddhist teachings, and the culture and self-determina-tion of the Tibetan people in their homeland was written after repeated requests by Tibetan government officials along with the unanimous consensus of the monastic and lay communities.

Full Moon sychronicity

My dear friends, I would like to share with you a bit of synchronous joy that I encountered the other evening just preceding the full moon. Rather spontaneously, I developed one of those bed-time hankerings for Rumi. I think that sometimes reading a few poems can be as riveting and satiating as reading an entire book. The first poem that I opened up to was titled

"Quietness"

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You are covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die, and be quiet.
Quietness is the surest sign
that you have died.

Your old life was frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

-(translated by Coleman Barks).

The surest sign to me that the yoga is working is when that moon can be felt illuminating the sparkling inner walls of an opened, released, and soft-palated cranium hovering there in the spacious inner sanctum of "akash" or the "space that dwells" in the pallet during khechari mudra. It is as if the moon were a dangling droplet of nectar that condensed there as a result of pure, beautiful release. Finding this poem just reminded me of the odd, joyous brilliance that makes up the binding weave of our existence. Full moon inside and out.

New Class Time!

I am thrilled to announce that I am teaching a new alignment-based vinyasa class at the Bay Club every Sunday at 9am.

Consider the value of ecosystem patterns of thought and awareness

Forthcoming...

All endings are really just beginnings.

New Classes

I am continuously astounded by the variability of each yoga class that I teach in terms of the energy that it contains. Each class begins with a negotiation process between the teacher and the student, a negotiation of our egos and space. Are the students listening? Are they listening and not paying attention? Are they listening and paying attention, but my instructions are not making sense?! What are the areas of the poses that need more articulation and highlighting, or what are the general physiological trends of the student body? And of course, am I talking too much? Whatever the answers to these questions, I find that the most valuable seeds of the practice that can be transmitted in a class are those that emphasize the feeling-tone of a process within which we involve our imaginations to create a feeling-image within the pose that recalibrates our sense of ordinary reality. In his book entitled, The Heart of the World: a Journey to Tibet's Lost Paradise, Ian Baker describes the value of imagination from the Tibetan Buddhist perspective: "...imagination does not so much transform as reveal what is already present, the mind's inherent creativity realizing it's essential unity with all phenomena and events." So, in the context of our yoga poses, there are infinite forms of feeling that can be imagined and meditated upon that range from lotus,' swords of light, serpent hoods, tidal waves--mostly nature oriented images, since a study of our body's form cannot be extract from our evolutionary and environmental past--to mythical and transcendental visualization that bring us to the brink of the quantum field and the realms of the gods. Interestingly, while I find myself negotiating the waters of teaching a yoga class with a properly tuned level that will be valuable for the students, or focusing on the pragmatics, I enjoy it most (and think that the students are equally) when we can dissolve/relax our existences (or roles) as subjects and objects, our roles as students and a teacher, and simply relish in the soup of the present experience, that is the effulgent, radiantly unfolding lotus of the present moment that binds all of us inexorably upon a single golden thread.

Why Yoga and the Value of Transcending Opposites

Through the practices of yoga we are cultivating a synergism of process in directional movement. When dialectically opposed patterns are joined together, they merge to create a more potent, higher state of being that has within it higher levels of potential energy, light, freedom, and grace. If the patterns were left to their own divisive tendencies, we encounter less of the just mentioned qualities and miss the opportunities of a dynamic equilibrium. Also, in the dissolution of opposites we find a heightened source of power, joy, vitality, through which the ecosystemic processes of the breath-mind-body system can be fully tapped and enlivened. In yoga we are planting seeds, the bijam, of the various yoga postures in the the soil of our lives, into the fecund ground of the mindful heart, where their encapsulating psycho-physiological effects take root, accumulate, and join together as a radiant, towering forest. As the postures age and begin to accumulate, all you have to do is let go of your efforts and allow the exfoliation, the flowering of the process, to unfold within the present moment. The general tendency to this experience equates to the process underlying the word "bliss."

For example, by spreading the roots of the feet in Head Balance, through expressive and articulate legs, our intention echoes the feeling-tone, the bhavana, of a lotus blossoming and unfolding its heart towards the heavens, with roots that draw their energy from deep within our hearts. The applications of this process, of course, extends well beyond our personal lives.

Arachnid Physicists

Long before Einstein was theorizing about the time-space continuum, a spider in the Amazon was weaving it!



She dwells within a little leaf tent, which dangles innocently from the bottom of her web, as if it had fallen there by chance, carried by a moist breeze.

My Dear Friends

My dear friends,

How I wish that I could share with you the delights of the Amazon, the delights of the heart of the world. If I could take you there, I would show you.

I would bring you to overlook the turged and spinning, milky brown waters of a rain swollen river whose banks rose 30 feet last night, in which the four dimensions of watery space are illumined by the cavorting, playful spirals of forest earth that mingle with the water.

I would bring you to look out over the darkened and humming night canopy of the forest, 90ft above the ground. We would look out over the articulated skeleton-like branches of the vast carpet of trees that extends to the horizon, a filled and expansive horizon of lungs. Lungs that breathe with mine and those of the incalculable masses of other being that share the vast and shimmering night air, a synesthesia of colors in the night blackness. The backdrop? A radiant, shimmering cathedral dome of the brightest starts that you have ever seen, that you could ever imagine seeing.

And oh, how I wish that you could feel with me the soft, moonbeam caresses of moth wings as they dance across our faces, brought to these heights by the nectarous allure of the flowering forest giants. Lured by the flowers that open only on this special night, spicy with energy, like discs of quicksilver, the gentle moths dance through the air--spiraling their way to the source. Your flashlight beam would pierce the dark, and then there would be nothing, nothing but the sparkling cranium of the heavens. If only you were here, I would show you the key that opens the space between yourself and the expanse.

We would walk together before dawn, in the dewy, dripping dark heat of the in between twilight. Together we would listen to the guttural roar of the distant Jaguar, to the piercing and mournful calls of the forest falcon, to the descending notes of the Potoo, and to the pure and resonant, chiming calls of a tinamou. They echo in this time of the quite forest. For miles they calls float through the vast and open understory. We would then watch as our torchlights lost their strength in the increasing blue light of the morning, a blue and black world of shape and hues. A world of great buttressed trees, draped heavily with lianas as this your arm, that spiral like the intelligent sinews of our share genetic heritage. Together we would smell the peppery jasmine-lemon scented, musty air and wonder to ourselves about the smallness that we all are and yet also the vastness of all this that we feel in our hearts. The day would slowly dawn and the morning chorus of 240 bird species would begin, each a valence of the million faceted gem of the forest and her architecture. Sparkling.

Natural Dharma

From the dedication chapter in Shantideva's Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life.

"May all embodied creatures
Uninterruptedly hear
The sound of the Dharma issuing from birds and trees,
Beams of light and even space itself"
V37

and

"For so long as space endures
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the misery of the world"
V55

Emergence of Our Work

Last night I watched a beautiful film about Sharks, called Sharkwater (www.sharkwater.com). It was one of the most beautifully shot underwater films that I have seen in quite some time and highly recommend it to anybody out there. The film also highlighted the serous attention that ought to be paid to our planet's top oceanic predators--we have no idea what the impacts of loosing millions of sharks will have on the rest of the trophic levels below; this includes the phytoplankton and alga that produce a vast proportion of the oxygen that we breath.
On a final note, I was particularly struck by a comment made by the director of Greanpeace who said, "you have to bring people the story of the beauty of the world... to bring the story of the living miracle of life and show it to people."

As conservationist and biologists, we have to remember this key aspect of our work that involves re-enchanting people with the awesome beauty of nature. Bringing people into the "story of the beauty of the world" is a key aspect in our endeavor as conservationists because it facilitates a unification of our sentiments and emotional bodies. This then becomes a force that can be transmitted, passed between people, and amplified intergenerationally.

How can we live our life as messengers of the world's beauty?

Crystaline Vibrance

Measuring biological diversity is like measuring the angle of prismatic constituents within a crystal, or an iridescent feather. On its own, the substrate looks dull with very little luminosity. But contextually, the particulate constituent takes on a radiant luster. The relational elements of a system, repetitively organized, magnify the pattern of potential within them. This pattern, however, is simultaneously a result of the properties that surround the constituent (fundamental) unit and is yet utterly inexorable from the fundamental unit in and of its self. By appreciating the ways that a system collectively interacts, we become more acutely aware of the deeper, vivid reflections and textures that course through it like veins just below the surface, or like the color of a shimmering crystal that comes bursting forth when you align it properly with a roaring beam of sun.

MULA BANDHA

How do you honor the Earth?
Grow Roots
Integrate
And Reach your Tendrils
Deep towards the Core
Of the Heart
Of the Planet
Of the empty and Luminous Channel
The Self.

Do as the Trees,
As the Plants that branch and reach reticulate
Spinning on this Fair Blue Globe
And send yourself Deep
Into the Moist
Lightless Verdant Depths.

Allow the Plants to Teach You
The True Foundation
Upon Which We Utterly Depend.

All Life.

Honoring is just a Gesture that Ties your Action
To a Continuum of Actions
That Carry 'Weight of Process'
A Gesture around the Organizational
Impulses
The Lattice Work of Interrelationships
That is Life.

So grow roots and honor yourself
Roots of Mind and Action
A Drawing, A Condensation
Into the Liquid, Molten, Nectarous
Core of the Heart.
Effortless Effort.

Veg Work

This is what happens when a tree is felled in the forest: light! One of the primary determinants of forest succession is access to light and the intensity of that light.

This tree was cut by a small-holder 1-2 years ago.

Big Moth

These are the things that you seen when your are doing vegetation surveys in the tropics. Things that your eye will totally miss if you are just walking through the forest. The blessings of doing "veg work" that compensate for the myriad of sweat bees lapping up your salts and crawling all over your body in the process. Mind control.

Can you believe that camouflage?! If you squint, you can barely see it. The container of nature is like giant spherical mirror that contains smaller mirrors, impersonators of the larger, flitting around within it. The more that they appear like the larger mirror, the higher tendency they have to pass their continuum of adapted energy onwards. The energy is never lost.

This Ghost Moth, was so big, that I was startled when it flew from the tree--even after I touched it! It flew like a leaf would fall and then quickly flip itself up onto the surface of another tree. So fast, that if you looked away for a moment you would miss it.

Avain Diversity in the Anthropogenic Forests of Tambopata, Peru

Please Check out my thesis: it wont bite...




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Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to my blog where you can find about about the last changes in my life and can encounter my thoughts regarding the nature of 'Nature' and how we as humans might cope with the increasing urbanization of our lives that leaves us feeling disconnected from our source. Biophilia, is a term that was developed from the work that Steven Kellert and E.O. Wilson did regarding the innate love that humans have for nature and the important role that nature, through its structures, plays in promoting psychophysiological wellbeing. Topics herein will range from poetry and philosophy to ecology, biodiversity conservation, and Yoga.