By Love Alone is Hatred Healed

9/11 Memorial (photo by Paul Keoni Chun, 9/8/16)

Yoga Friends,

15 years ago today, the world changed. Hard to believe it's been so long. I have many faded memories and feelings by now. Still, I think it is important to look back, remember, and reflect.
 
Earlier this week, I got to visit the memorial. I was immediately struck by the names etched into it. They seemed to represent every culture, ethnicity, and religion on the planet. Truly, the reverberations of 9/11 were felt by virtually all peoples on this earth. One that day, we were One.
 
Once again, we have an opportunity to consider what we can learn from the events of 9/11/01 and put into practice in our own lives. I've often shared this teaching from the Buddha at this time:

Hatred never ceases with hatred,
but by love alone is hatred healed.

For me personally, when confronted with my own shortcomings and failings, I have tried to use them as opportunities to give myself doses of love and kindness. I can certainly "hate" my way toward further self-improvement, but I chose to try to "love" my way toward that outcome. I truly believe that every act of love and kindness towards our own selves ultimately has global consequences.
 
Perhaps you'll come across this fork in your road in the coming days, when you are confronted with a personal failing. May you choose the Path of love and kindness toward your own self, for the benefit of all beings on the planet.
 
May we never forget.
 
aloha, with metta,
paul

Selfless Service Leads To Greater Freedom

My Olympian move (photo by Adeet Deshmukh)

Yoga Friends,

One of my favorite yoga sequences that I teach annually leads to the posture Hanumanasana (forward splits). With the Olympics occurring this past month, and having seen many amazing feats executed -- particularly by the gymnasts -- this was an appropriate time to practice this pose. Plus the heat of the summer makes it easier to go deeper into it.
 
In the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, Lord Hanuman (a.k.a. the Monkey God), was so devoted to his master that when his master's wife was captured and taken to a far-off island, Hanuman somehow mustered up the ability to do a giant split-leap over the vast ocean to rescue her. Can you picture this in your mind and imagine doing it?!
 
Though a myth, the story of Hanuman and his amazing feats remind us all that when the cause is great enough, we are able somehow to muster up the strength, perseverance, and will-power to accomplish incredible feats.  We are able to place our ego at the feet of something bigger than our own little selves, and act with humility in serving humanity selflessly through the talents we were born with. In the story, Hanuman forgot that he had inner strengths, but it took being presented with an opportunity to serve something bigger for him to remember that he had these strengths.
 
What is in your heart at this moment that you would like to see manifested for the benefit of all beings? If you can start by identifying that, you will soon find that you do have the ability to take many small yet consistent steps towards realizing your Olympian-sized dream.
 
May you remember your inner strengths through selfless service.
May you complete your missions.
May you know greater freedom.
 
aloha, with metta,
paul

Returning Home

Hōkūleʻa or Arcturus (Image by astrogeeks.com)

Last month, I attended an amazing event at the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History. Hōkūleʻa, the canoe from Hawaii that is being paddled around the world over three years to share Mālama Honua -- caring for Island Earth -- had docked in NYC. A navigator from the ship spoke to us as we gazed up at the night sky projected above, explaining how the ancient Hawaiians used wayfinding techniques to navigate the waters of Polynesia with only natural elements to guide them. I was mesmerized by the explanation of their feat, and by the end felt so proud to be part Hawaiian and a descendant of these seafarers. 

Hōkūleʻa means "Star of Gladness." It is the Hawaiian word for Arcturus, the bright star which passes over Hawai'i. It is Nature's guide that points Hawaiians to the way home.

Most touchingly, I recall, at the very end, the navigator said that home is already in our hearts and minds. We can trust that it is there, and we instinctively know how to return to it when are in touch with the deepest callings of our hearts and minds. In that moment, I remember longing to go back home to Hawai'i.

All these feelings of -- longings for -- returning home got me to consider: as yoga and meditation practitioners, what does returning home mean to us?

Consider this passage from Buddhist psychology:

O Nobly Born, O you of glorious origins, remember your radiant true nature, the essence of mind. Trust it. Return to it. It is home. 
—The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Jack Kornfield on “Discovering our Nobility: A Psychology of Original Goodness)

The idea is that no matter how difficult things get for us, no matter how much we are suffering -- yes, life involves suffering if you haven't realized this by now -- these dark clouds in our mind and heart are not who we truly are. The Buddha recognized this in stating the Four Noble Truths.

From Lion's Roar, "prominent Buddhist teacher and psychologist Jack Kornfield proposes a new psychology, one based not on a model of sickness but on Buddhism’s belief in the inherent nobility, beauty, and freedom of human nature." Often we so identify with our neuroses. I certainly can. AND we can also choose to identify with our inherent capacity for compassion and for seeing the good in ourselves and others.

Consider also the wisdom of the venerable Vietnamese Buddhist Mediation Master, Thich Nhat Hanh through these various quotes:

"Every time you feel lost, alienated, or cut off from life, or from the world, every time you feel despair, anger, or instability, practice going home. Mindful breathing is the vehicle that you use to go back to your true home."

"Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes."

"... when you are mindful, you are fully live, you are fully present. You can get in touch with the wonders of life, that can nourish you, and heal you. And  you are stronger, you are more solid, in order to handle the suffering inside of you and around you. Aaah, when you are mindful you can recognize, embrace, and handle the pain and sorrow in you, and around you, to bring relief. And if you will continue with concentration ... you will be able to transform the suffering inside, and help transform the suffering around you."

"... when you breathe in, your mind comes back to your body and then you become fully aware that you are alive, that you are a miracle, and that everything you touch could be a miracle. ... [the] wonders of life [are] available in the here and the now. ... you need to breath mindfully in and out, in order to be fully present, and to get in touch with all these things. And that is a miracle, because you understand the nature of the suffering, you know the role that suffering plays in life, and you are not trying to run away from suffering any more ... and you know how to make use of suffering in order to build peace and happiness. It's like growing a lotus flower. You cannot grow a lotus flower on marble, you have to grow them on the mud. Without mud, you cannot have lotus flower. Without suffering, you have no way ... to learn how to be understanding and compassionate."

In yoga, we practice deep mindful breathing in order to bring relief and more openness to the tight muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia of our bodies. In sitting or walking meditation, we practice breath awareness in order to bring expansiveness to the tight, narrow focus of our minds in the present moment. 

With all the anger, violence and conflict permeating the world these days, now more than ever we need spiritual warriors who can return home to the breath to help transform some of that suffering. We need more people who can remember the mind's true home of radiance. We need more people who can transform some of that mud all around us into something beautiful. We need more people to simply return home.

As with Hōkūleʻa, the star of gladness that lies within our very own hearts and minds inherently -- because that is who we truly are -- will always lead us back home. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz came to realize at the very end of her long journey that home was always in her heart. She just had to leave Kansas -- indeed leave home -- temporarily in order to come to know that and find home again. 

Dorothy also came to realize, "there's no place like home."

May each of us remember our true home.
May each of us know the return there by coming in touch with the gladness in our hearts.
May each of us remember that there is no place like home.
May each of us remember these things for the benefit of all beings.

By Love Alone Is Hatred Healed and Bridges Of Interconnectedness

Brooklyn Bridge

Yoga Friends, this month we experienced collectively so much pain and sorrow as major events swirled around us. From the mass shooting at The Pulse Night Club in Orlando, to the Supreme Court ruling (or lack thereof) over immigration, to "Brexit," no matter what your personal views on each of these situations is, like the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge which connects Brooklyn and Manhattan, we all got to realize yet again just how interconnected we are by the little and big bridges we form with others in our lives. What can we as yoga and meditation practitioners do to make some sense of it all? 

During times like these, I go back to the teachings of the Buddha for guidance. Especially during times like these, it is important to remember his words from the Dhammapada:

Hatred never ceases with hatred,
but by love alone is hatred healed. 
This is an ancient truth.

Many do not realize that we here must die.
For those who remember
Quarrels end.

According to a google search, in Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva a person who is able to reach nirvana but delays doing so out of compassion in order to save suffering beings. Though that is quite a lofty goal to strive for, I believe that each of us possess the compassion to want to alleviate the suffering we witness around us. Often, though, we are at a loss for what to do. I think we can start by coming to our yoga mats and our meditation cushions with the intention not to harm our own selves, but rather to be as loving and kind to ourselves as we possibly can, especially when we fail.

I for one am not perfect, and I have come to see that it is especially important that I be loving, kind, and compassionate to myself when I make a mistake. I also believe that this act of self-kindness actually helps the entire world in some small way.

The lotus blossom is symbolic in yoga. Padmasana, or Lotus Position, is the posture one assumes when practicing meditation. In the posture, one sits rooted to the Earth while shifting one's attention to the Divine.

The lotus is also a symbolic in Buddhism. John Powers writes in his Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism:

A lotus is born in the muck and mud at the bottom of a swamp, but when it emerges on the surface of the water and opens its petals, a beautiful flower appears, unstained by the mud from which it arose. Similarly, the compassion and wisdom of buddhas arise from the muck of the ordinary world, which is characterized by fighting, hatred, distrust, anxiety, and other negative emotions. These emotions tend to cause people to become self-centered and lead to suffering and harmful emotions. But just as the world is the locus of destructive emotions, it is also the place in which we can become buddhas, perfected beings who have awakened from the sleep of ignorance and who perceive reality as it is, with absolute clarity and with profound compassion for suffering living beings. 

For me this statement reminds me to stay connected to the earth, and to all the beings that inhabit it. It reminds me to stay connected to my inner, negative emotions. All the horror and sadness -- all the muck of the world -- we witness around us and inside of us might just be the very ingredients we need to spur us onward by awakening our compassion and thus moving us closer to enlightenment. It is possible for each of us through our various contemplative practices to blossom further to becoming beautiful beings that can somehow be helpful to those around us. We have that capacity, and I believe that innate drive.

When yucky, mucky things happen to us, we have a tendency to want to run away. Fortunately seated meditation is a tool we can use to hold the mucky energy and transform it into something beautiful.

Earlier this month, the Hōkūleʻa, a canoe from my native Hawaii, arrived in New York Harbor. It's been over 2 years since it left Hawaii and the crews have paddled it across the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans being guided simply by the stars, wind, currents, birds and other navigational tools provided by nature. The have created bridges with First Nations People all around the world. The voyage's mission is Mālama Honua or "caring for our Island Earth." As yoga practitioners, the reminder for us is that we are all interconnected and it is our collective responsibility to care for Mother Earth. Harm done in one part of the world is felt globally.

Hōkūleʻa docked in Lower Manhattan, June 5, 2016

My wishes for the planet right now are:
May we all cultivate more love and kindness within ourselves.
May we all remember that we are interconnected.
May we shift from every man, ethnicity for himself to every individual for the collective.
May we all stay connected to the muck of the world, and transform it into something beautiful. 

With Aloha and Metta,
Paul

Helping Those Most In Need To Heal Through Yoga

The Times Square Green and Healthy Living Fair

Keoni Movement Arts was invited to provide chair yoga sessions the nonprofit SRO called The Times Square, which works with NYCHA/section 8/low income clientele. They held a “Green and Healthy Living Fair” on June 15, 2016, at which various community organizations came to share their services. The individuals who came to the sessions were very appreciative and had interesting stories to tell. One gentleman said he was a Vietnam Vet and has had many nightmares from the experiences there. He said he used to be addicted to drugs and alcohol, but has been clean for over 20 years. Many who came to the sessions left saying they felt more relaxed at the end. Later, Jessica Stinchcomb, who coordinates tenant services on-site, asked if KMA would be willing to come back and do a dedicated chair yoga class for these individuals, to which I of course said yes. The case workers there will also refer clients to us who are able to come to our DaNY classes on their own. Fortunately, The Times Square is at West 43rd St. and 8th Ave., so they are literally five blocks from DaNY. All in all, I enjoyed myself, felt appreciated and left feeling like I had made a small difference in these people’s lives.

Many thanks to Keith Jurosko for shooting these photos.

Feeling the breath leads to peace.

"I'm over here!"

Offering a calming touch can go a long way.

Failing Towards ... Success!

Bunker Hill Monument

Dear Yoga Friends, 

This month, my partner Ed and I got to visit Boston for a weekend. We both enjoyed walking The Freedom Trail, visiting important historic sites commemorating the American Revolution. At top is the Bunker Hill Monument. Though the Colonists lost this battle with the British, ultimately they won the Revolutionary War and their freedom from oppression. Thus, failure ultimately led to success.

The classic yoga text, The Bhagavad Gita, reminds us that we "have control over our actions, but not over their fruits." It suggests that we "live not for the fruits of action, nor attach ourselves to inaction." It advises, "perform actions having abandoned attachment and remain balanced in success and failure."

Had the colonists just given up after losing this battle, we might not be here today, enjoying the many freedoms we as Americans have, which we are reminded of annually on commemorative days such as Memorial Day.

The bottom line is, we can't really cross the finish line and experience victory unless we endure -- indeed, embrace! -- a lot of failure.

For any great venture to ultimately succeed, the founders have to be willing to embrace the discomfort of failure over and over again. For us who practice yoga and meditation in hopes of becoming further Enlightened, we have to know from the get-go that we will fail often.

According to this blog by Wharton Professor, Adam Grant, famous entrepreneurs Elon Musk (Tesla Founder), Larry Page (Google Founder), and Jack Dorsey (Twitter co-founder), "all felt the same fear of failure that the rest of us do. They just responded to it differently [than most people]. Yes, they are afraid of failing but they're even more afraid of failing to try."

Lao Tzu, to whom the classic Chinese text the Tao Te Ching is attributed, writes in Chapter 64, "People usually fail when they are on the verge of success. So give as much care to the end as to the beginning, then there will be no failure." The lesson: you might be just one failure away from success. Another translation of these lines states, "Therefore the Master takes actions by letting things take their course. He remains as calm at the end as at the beginning." The practice: remain calm during failure.

In yoga asana practice, we try over and over again to go deeper into postures. Sometimes we try too hard; other times we don't try hard enough. That's ok, at least we are trying! The trick is to breathe deeply and stay calm through it all.

I take all these pieces of wisdom to heart, as they have guided me in my efforts to engage in things that move my heart. Why did I move to NYC in the mid-80s to become an actor, dancer, singer when the odds were stacked against me? Because I couldn't risk not trying. Why have I spent countless hours and given much effort over these last 5 years to furthering the mission of Keoni Movement Arts, the nonprofit I started? Adam Grant said of the entrepreneurs he interviewed that "they weren't afraid of failing, but of failing to matter. And that meant they had to make an effort, to take a shot at bringing their new ideas into the world." I have felt the same way.

During my earlier career as an actor, dancer, singer and more recently as the leader of a movement arts program, I have made many mistakes and failed on numerous occasions. But I am heartened by something I heard John Hennessy, the out-going President of Stanford University, say at a recent alumni event. By all accounts he has has transformed the school in his 16 years of leadership. When asked how he assembled such a great team around him, he said, "I've learned to make mistakes and change course quickly." 

Hearing this encourages me to make even more mistakes in order to learn what not to do the next time. And as I get better and better at changing courses quicker and quicker, my confidence in my ability to do so -- and ultimately succeed -- also grows. 

I turned 57 this past month of May and the great thing about seeing life from this vantage point of having failed and made mistakes many times in my life already is that things I am doing now are actually getting to be more and more fun. I am enjoying teaching more than I ever have, and when I am able to return to acting, I know that I will enjoy that even more than before. 

Winston Churchill said, "success comes from meeting each challenge, working through each failure, yet still continuing to take each action with great enthusiasm!"

The Bhagavad Gita says that "balance of mind is called yoga."

I wish for you much enthusiasm as you work through each failure, and I hope your mind can be balanced and calm through each miscalculation.

Here's to Success ... through Failure! Here's to ... Joy!

With Aloha and Metta,
Paul

P.S. Please remember those who have served in all wars to give us freedoms that we can enjoy so much almost to the point of us easily forgetting that we even have them.

Paul Revere in front of old north church

Touching Discomforts

The Buddhist Meditation Teacher, Pema Chodron, has been a source of inspiration and guidance to me for a number of years now. In her book, Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears, she outlines steps that she's used to become freer from her entanglements. No doubt, we all have old habits and fears that we wish we could be freed from.

We all experience things in life that we feel we just can't bear. How many times do we say to ourselves, "no, I don't want to go there" when faced with unpleasant memories that cause knots in our stomach? How often do we find ourselves planning our daily to-do lists and thinking, "ugh, I don't want to work on that task today. Can't it wait." What Pema suggested that was so compelling to me was:

"... take an interest in your pain and fear. Move closer, lean in, get curious, even for a moment experience the feelings beyond labels, beyond good or bad. Welcome them. Invite them. Do anything that helps melt the resistance."

She writes that her teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, "described the basic practice [of meditation] as being completely present. [He] emphasized that it allowed for our neuroses to come to the surface. It was not, as he put it, 'a vacation from irritation.'"

Most often, we don't want to see that neurosis rising to the surface of our minds. "Why can't it remain buried forever," we wish. "I don't want to go there," we shout internally. But Pema suggests that in "going there" we can actually begin the process of destroying the seed itself. She writes: 

"In this very lifetime, I have what it takes to change the movie of my life so that the same things don't keep happening to me. It does seem the same things keep coming back to trigger the same feelings in us until we've made friends with them. Our attitude can be that we keep getting another chance, rather than that we're just getting another bad deal. ... [When confronted with yet another neuroses rising to the surface,] our repetitive suffering does not come from [the] uncomfortable sensation ... [rather] it comes from rejecting our own energy when it comes in a form we don't like. It comes from continually strengthening habits of grasping and aversion and distancing ourselves. ... But if we choose to practice by acknowledging, pausing, abiding with the energy, and then moving on, the power of this is not just that it weakens old habits but that it burns up the propensity for these habits altogether." 

Pema shared an experience she had when she found herself overtaken by a deep anxiety. She went to her teacher to ask for advice. After describing the feelings she was experiencing in her body, her teacher exclaimed, "... that's the Dakini Bliss, ... a high level of spiritual bliss." Pema writes:

"I thought, 'Wow, this is great!' And I couldn't wait to feel that intensity again. And do you know what happened? When I eagerly sat down to practice [meditation], of course, since the resistance was gone, so was the anxiety. ... I had been making the sensation bad. ... But when my teacher said, 'Dakini Bliss,' it completely changed the way I looked at it."

If the promise of yoga is liberation, then we must first be willing to touch discomforts. At the physical level, it is uncomfortable to do yoga asana practice. On the mental level, it is uncomfortable to sit in meditation and pause when our mind is telling us "get up and go eat that piece of cake and scroll through Facebook." And we can reframe the way we are looking at these experiences, as they may just be leading us to the highest level of spiritual bliss.

As much as I applaud myself for getting things done in order to keep Keoni Movement Arts moving forward, there are a good number of times when I procrastinate and just don't want to do the next task. The result of course is that the resistance increases, the guilt piles up, and the task remains undone. But as I learned in this article on why we procrastinate, the best thing one can do for one's self at such times is to forgive and have compassion for one's self. We can also do what the Buddhist meditation teacher, Sharon Salzberg says, "just begin again." Touching the energy, having compassion, and beginning again are the keys to loosening the resistance. They are the keys that open the door to liberation. 

U.S. Senator Cory Booker said:

"People who get comfortable of mind and intellect get dull. People who get comfortable in their spirit, they miss what they were created for. ... I have come to learn in my life, to embrace discomfort, because it's a pre-condition to service.  I've come to realize to embrace fears because if you can move through fear you find out that fear is a pre-condition to discovery. I've learned in my life to embrace frustration, because when you get really frustrated, that is a pre-condition to incredible break-throughs. ... take the more difficult road. ..."

May your touching your discomforts lead you to further liberation from old habits and fears. 

May you touch discomforts for the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Contentment

THE OCULUS, LOWER MANHATTAN TRANSPORTATION HUB, WITH THE FREEDOM TOWER RISING HIGH ABOVE, March 29, 2016

Dear Yoga Friend,

Perhaps one of the hardest parts of practicing yoga is the cultivation of Samtosha, or Contentment. After all, we live within a capitalistic economic system, whose engine is based on consumption. In other words, advertisers are constantly driving us to be discontent with what we have, so that we will consume more and keep the engine running.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali have this sage advice: samtosha anuttamah sukha labhah.
Translation: from an attitude of contentment, supreme Joy is attained. 

A teacher named Mehtab commented on this sutra: "First understand what contentment is. It is not happiness but a condition for happiness. It is not complacency or just saying 'oh, whatever' - instead it is serenity and acceptance of whatever is." Judith Lasater, a prominent American teacher, said: "This verse states several important things. First, that happiness is indeed obtainable. ... Secondly, the way to happiness is to follow the path of contentment. Contentment is not a sissy concept. In order to be content, one must have won and lost, gained and given up. been up and been down. In order to be content, one must have lived life fully."

As I reflected on Samtosha this past month, I came to realize that for people like me who are in the third quarter of life (i.e. over 50), growing older is a good thing. If anything, as I've gotten older, I've come to see that I can't have everything I want. Really all I need are the important things, like meaningful work, a good-enough income, enough free time to spend doing things I love doing, and enough quality time to spend with my partner, Ed. When I was younger in my stage-of-the-ego years, I wanted the moon and the stars. Now I am more content to simply have what I have here on earth. 

As I wove contentment practice into my life this past month, it took shape in several important ways. For one thing, I valued my sleep time more and I made sure to be in bed for at least 8 hours each night. During the days, I distinguished better between the urgent and the important, and just tried to accomplish the urgent. I learned that some things are really not as important as they seem to be to my ego, which wants to accomplish everything. I must say, 8 hours in bed feels really good.

Contentment manifested itself in other ways in my life. Some days I didn't have time to sit for my morning 20 minute meditation practices. So instead I took it on the road, doing walking meditations on my way to my first classes in the mornings. It actually felt nice to walk mindfully on the sidewalks and sit mindfully in the subways. I got to be more fully present for people I met along the way, and I got to send more metta (loving-kindness) silently to more strangers along the way. It felt nice not to have my mind preoccupied with my cell phone and emails during some of my commutes. I felt contentment. 

With our nation's political world being gripped by this very strange election cycle, I practiced contentment by not feeling the need to keep up with every twist and turn. I must say it is soothing for my mind not to be bombarded by the bombast.

The Buddha famously said: "Contentment is the greatest wealth." I think that is something that only one who has lived a full life can understand and I am just now starting to see what he meant by that. If the promise of yoga is to help us to live happier lives, then, according to the yoga sutras, it starts first with cultivating contentment.

I hope that contentment, followed by happiness, can take hold and manifest itself in many wonderful ways in your life.

May you be happy, ...
May you dwell in your heart, ...
May your mind return to a state of contentment over and over again, ...
... for the benefit of all Beings everywhere.

With Metta and Aloha, 

Paul Keoni Chun

FIRST SIGNS OF SPRING budding IN ARVERNE, NY
(MARCH 26, 2016)

Spreading Love and Kindness To All

9/11 Memoral, February 21, 2016

Dear Yoga Friend,
 
In this month of February when we celebrate Valentines Day commemorating the miracle of romantic love, it's a good time to remind ourselves of our inherent ability to extend love and kindness towards all beings. This is a different kind of love than romantic love, but nonetheless it is a miracle that we can even extend ourselves in this way. The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali points the way in this important verse:
 
maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha duhka punya apunya vishayanam bhavanatah chitta prasadanam
Chapter 1, Sutra 33
 
Swami Jnaneshvara (SwamiJ) translates this as:
 
In relationships, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or evil.
 
In his commentary, SwamiJ reminds us that it is sometimes difficult to be friendly toward the happy, especially during times when we ourselves are unhappy.
 
It is sometimes difficult to have compassion for the suffering. We sometimes tend to wish it would all just go away.
 
It is sometimes difficult to extend goodwill toward the virtuous -- the "goodie-two-shoes" of the world. We sometimes wish we could do as much good as they are doing, but we can't.
 
And we know, it especially difficult to remain neutral toward the wicked. Their terrible acts do really disturb our own minds.
 
The yoga practice is to gently nudge our mind in the opposite direction from its habitual tendencies.
 
According to Swami J, the yoga concept here is that in order to arrive at deeper levels of awareness of our True Nature, we need tools to help get our mind there. Using the techniques above to deal with these four categories of people we encounter in our lives, will help prepare our mind for deeper levels of meditation.
 
In the Buddha's teachings, there is a related practice called metta or loving-kindness meditation. It involves one sending loving and kind thoughts towards ourselves first, then outwards to those near and far.
 
My Own Experiments
 
So, my personal meditation practice this past month involved me sending loving and kind thoughts toward the various categories of people, as well as to myself. It proved to be interesting.
 
During the first week, I began by wishing happiness for myself, saying quietly to myself, "May I be happy," several times a day. Then, I tried to think of people who were happy so that I could send loving-kind thoughts their way. I must say that proved difficult! So many people I encountered and knew around me seemed to be unhappy that as I write this now I cannot even remember if I encountered anyone! Perhaps I could have remembered people around the world who live in far less affluent countries than ours. Come to think of it, I remember many years ago meeting a young man in the Dominican Republic who lived in a rickety shack made of metal who said to me, "we don't have a lot, but we are happy." True, sometimes the less we have, the happier we are. In fact, according to one finding, there are more happy people in Panama and Costa Rica than in the United States.
 
In the second week, I tried practicing compassion for those who are suffering by sending loving-kind thoughts to those who were appeared to be suffering -- including myself. It actually was easier to identify people who were suffering! I found myself frequently saying, "May 'so-and-so' be happy" to as many people I could identify around me who seemed to be suffering. And I recall having a particularly difficult week myself, so I frequently paused to say to myself, "May I have compassion for my own suffering." While I don't recall this act having any immediate effects on me, I am glad that I could at least acknowledge my own suffering. And I did enjoy identifying friends in my life who were going through difficulties and extending toward them wishes that they could be happy and not suffer so much.
 
In the third week, I tried to identify the virtuous around me. Interestingly enough, the first person that came to my mind was my partner, Ed. I do think of him as someone who truly tries to live to help other people out. And I identified a few other people in my life who seem to be further along particular paths than myself. I practiced sending good thoughts there way. I actually found it comforting to do so. The sentiment of my feelings toward them was "thank you for leading me in this particular way towards where I wish to be some day."
 
In the fourth week, I tried my best to be indifferent towards the wicked around me. "Aaayyaaa," as the Chinese expression goes! Living in this densely populated city, one becomes witness to so many acts of "not-very-nice" behavior on a daily basis. It is sometimes very difficult to keep one's mind steady as we New Yorkers go through our daily routines. For those of you who travel into Manhattan from the outer boroughs I am sure that you witness and experience lots of disturbances on the subway rides in. One of my own pet peeves is when someone begins to sing or play their music loud on the subway. During such occurrences I default to sitting up straight, closing my eyes, and practicing following my breath. It is the only thing that helps my mind to achieve steadiness again and helps me to remain neutral in the midst of such acts. 
 
Witness, too, the current U.S. political climate. So much wickedness is being spewed back and forth! And the advertisers and various media are making a lot of money off of it! Wickedness seems to sell. Double "aaaayyaaaa!"
 
But taking this one step deeper, I also bear witness to my own wicked tendencies and my own wicked thoughts. During such moments, I try to remain neutral and remind myself that I am not alone. My own wicked tendencies and thoughts may be different than those of others, but I have no doubt that the vast majority of people have wicked tendencies and thoughts lurking within. My own practice has been to try to remain neutral in the face of what I see inside of me that I don't particularly like.
 
It is only when our minds can remain neutral in the face of evil and wickedness that it can derive best actions to take that will neutralize the wickedness and evil acts that are being committed. But if we get caught up in our own anger, the danger is that we will take wrong action and make things worse.
 
I think this sutra highlights one of those "off-the-yoga-mat" practices that in some ways is more difficult than any asanas -- except for perhaps seated meditation -- one will encounter "on-the-yoga-mat." Still I think it is a worthwhile practice to consider engaging in, and something once can still do even if one does not practice "on-the-mat" yoga.
 
From my own meditation practice, I extend metta (loving-kindness) to you by offering these wishes in your direction for your benefit:
 
May you be friendly toward the happy, ...
May you have compassion for your own suffering, ...
May you have compassion for the suffering of others, ...
May you extend goodwill toward the virtuous, those who are further along the path than you, ...
May you remain neutral toward the wicked, ...
May you remain neutral toward your own wickedness, ...
May you have the capacity to send love and kindness in these ways to all the people you meet as you walk your Path, ...
... for the benefit of all Beings everywhere.
 
With metta and aloha, 
Paul Keoni Chun

Stillness

CENTRAL PARK, JANUARY 24, 2016

Dear Students,

New York was blanketed in a huge snow storm this month. I love these times when the city is forced to come to a standstill. Usually there is so much activity, that we can easily forget what stillness feels like.

T. S. Eliot penned these words, which seemed fitting:

At the still point of the turning world. 
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; 
at the still point, 
there the dance is,
...
Where past and future are gathered. 
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. 
Except for the point, the still point,
...

As we start the new year, full of promise and potential, and starting new rituals, one of the best things we can do is practice meditation regularly. Quieting down the mind and bringing it towards stillness is the ultimate aim of practicing yoga. Though we work with the body, strengthening and stretching it, in asana (postures) practice, yoga is so much more than that.

In the classic text, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali -- the "yoga bible" so to speak -- right at the beginning, Sutras (Verses) 2 and 3 in the opening chapter state:

Yogas Chittas Vritti Nirodhah
Tadah Drashtu Svarupe Avasthanam

Loose translation: the goal of yoga ultimately is to quiet down the movements of the mind and bring it towards stillness. When the mind is still, only then can the Self -- our True Nature -- be realized.

Practically speaking, it does not matter how strong or flexible you are if you can remember that stillness of mind is the ultimate goal in yoga asana.

Everything in our day to day experiences conspire to have us believe that we are past and future, movement from and towards, ascent and decline. Taking time to practice yoga and meditation help to remind us that these things are the least of who we really are.

For me, the one daily ritual that I have maintained over a number of years now (by now so many that I can't remember) is 20 - 40 minutes of meditation practice each day. I live in midtown Manhattan -- one of the busiest places on the planet -- and it is a true wonder to me at times that I can experience stillness and relative silence, despite all that is going on around me. My practice is my oasis, my mini-vacation (or "stay-cation") which helps to keep me sane and able to hold onto some semblance of equanimity. It is a treasure to me.

Will you take a moment in your day to practice being still? If so, know that everything that follows will be of great benefit to you and others.

May your mind come to stillness,
May you know the still point,
May your True Nature be revealed, ...
... for the benefit of all beings everywhere.

With metta and aloha, 

Paul Keoni Chun
January 31, 2016

Dana - Generosity

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LONGWOOD GARDENS, KENNETT SQUARE, PA - CHRISTMAS LIGHTS DISPLAY

Dana Parami translates as "perfecting generosity. From the Buddha's teachings, in order for the mind to become awakened, the first quality we need to perfect is generosity. 

Buddhist Meditation Teacher, Gina Sharpe, writes:

"The Buddha said that a true spiritual life is not possible without a generous heart. Generosity is the first parami, or quality of an awakened mind. The path begins there because of the joy and opens that arise from the generous heart. ..."

The benefit of practicing generosity for us is that we feel good. Though yoga and meditation practice are not often thought of as acts of generosity, it can be made so by how we align our intentions with our practice. Are we just practicing for our own benefit or do we practice with hopes that we can somehow help the global situation through our practice? The benefit to us of practicing for the sake of others is that we get to feel good in the process and likely will experience more success in our practice. 

The Buddhist meditation teacher Kamala Masters writes:

"Generosity is a medicine for our tendency to hold on to things, to cling to life as it is, because it is developing the opposite, developing our ability to let go ... letting go of the material ... of our need to be right ...."

I really found this helpful this month as some changes occurred that I found upsetting. Sometimes I struggle with wanting some things to be the same and not to change. But of course I know that things will always change. I take comfort in realizing that in my 56 years of living in this human form on this earth that somehow through all the changes inflicted on me from the outside I've made it through OK. There's no reason for me to fear change if I can remember that so far the Right Path has found me always.

Especially when practicing yoga postures, let go of your need to be right. Generously give yourself room to breathe. As much as we practice to accumulate more strength, power, and flexibility in our bodies, practice letting go of all of that too. The practice ends in savasana, relaxation, in part because we can perfect letting go.

Pema Chodron interprets Dana Parami this way:

"Giving is an act of letting go of holding on to yourself."

Each time we practice yoga and meditation, we let go a bit more and more of all the stuff we hold on to. As we grow older, we see more intimately how finite life is and how, as one of my former and formative yoga teachers used to say, we have to let go of habits that are stale, old and no longer useful. Letting go of things we no longer need frees us up to be more fully present for others. This too is an act of generosity.

Gina Sharpe concludes:

"... Pure unhindered delight flows freely when we practice generosity. We experience joy in forming the intention to give, in the actual act of giving, and in recollecting the fact that we've given. I invite you to practice giving joyously this season."

Now that the month and the year are coming to an end, I was able to reflect back happily and recall the ways I was able to give to others in this past month and year. It brought me great joy in seeing again the delight my giving brought out in others. That felt like a gift to me.

It also brought me great joy in realizing that the reason I can give is because I have so much abundance. And, in those moments when I could recognize my own abundance -- rather than my lack -- my own mind felt freer. What a gift that felt like.

I am so grateful to have all the abundance -- both material as well as accumulated knowledge and wisdom -- in my life that allows me to live with a greater sense of freedom. It frees me up to be of greater service.

Buddhist Meditation Teacher, Sharon Salzberg, put it this way:

“... I’d rather translate whatever sense of abundance I do have into more generosity and reaching out to others.”

May you perfect generosity, ...
May you let go of more stuff as an act of generosity, ...
May you hold on to yourself less, ...
May you be experiencing great joy as you reflect on your giving, ...
May your mind be further awakened, ...
for the benefit of all beings everywhere.
 

Learning to Stay

Central Park at Dusk, November 2015

We all felt devastated after the attacks in Paris this past month. As practitioners of yoga and meditation, perhaps we asked ourselves: "what can we do that will help?" Pema Chodron suggests "Learning to Stay."

Understandably, our first reaction to such devastation would be to want to find those killers and seek revenge immediately. Certainly, they should be found and be prevented from doing any more harm.

And, we can also look within and ask ourselves: "where exactly do the root causes of evil lie?" Pema Chodron writes:

"To honestly face the pain in our lives and the problems in the world, let's start by looking compassionately and honestly at our own minds. We can become intimate with the mind of hatred, the mind that polarizes, the mind that makes somebody 'other' and bad and wrong. We come to know, unflinchingly, and with great kindness, the angry, unforgiving hostile wolf [that lives within our very own heart]. Over time, that part of ourselves becomes very familiar but we no longer feed it. Instead, we can make the choice to nurture openness, intelligence, and warmth. This choice, and the attitudes and actions that follow from it, are like a medicine that has the potential to cure all suffering."

At this moment in the world, there are so many people who don't have the capacity and the ability to even consider examining their own minds. Many, quite understandably, have minds that are filled with anger and vengeance, at this time. For us who do have a little more space to step back from the chaos, we are reminded, as Pema writes here, that:

"... for each and every one of us, intelligence, warmth, and openness are always accessible. If we can be conscious enough to realize what's happening [in any given moment], we can pause and uncover these basic human qualities. ... we can make the choice to nurture openness, intelligence, and warmth. This choice, and the attitudes and actions that follow from it, are like the medicine that has the potential to cure all suffering."

Pema continues:

"What I've noticed about the people I consider to be awake is this: They're fully conscious of whatever is happening. They're minds don't go off anywhere. They just stay right her with chaos, with silence, with a carnival, in an emergency room, on a mountainside; they're completely receptive and open to what's happening. ..."

We can help the world by seeing the root causes of suffering -- the hating mind, the vengeful mind, the closed mind -- within our very own beings. In practicing yoga and meditation, we clean the lens of our mind by purifying our body first so that ultimately we have space to examine our own minds more closely and honestly. An important part of this practice involves learning to stay with whatever arises and not letting things trigger us so that we commit unwise actions.

An important reminder from the Buddha -- especially at this time -- is this one:

"The Buddha taught that every human birth is precious and worthy of gratitude. In one of his well-known analogies, he said that receiving a human birth is more rare than the chance that a blind turtle floating in the ocean would stick its head through a small hoop. He would often instruct a monk to take his ground cloth into the forest, sit at the base of a tree, and begin 'gladdening his heart' by reflecting on the series of fortunate circumstances that had given the monk the motivation and ability to seek freedom through understanding the dharma."

Whether or not you believe in reincarnation, it is good to be reminded of just how lucky we are to have this opportunity to experience life as a human being. It's not that life will never cease to be unfair or not always be fun nor pleasant. But it is indeed our luck that we can, as the Buddha said we could, "live joyfully amidst that sorrows of the world." We are so lucky that we can learn to stay and sit with sadness, with evil, with life's inherent appearance of unfairness and ultimately use these experiences to deepen our ability to know and express compassion, tenderness, and love.

During this season of giving thanks for all that we have, if we can't think of any reasons to be thankful, at the very least we can practice simply staying. In doing so, undoubtedly over time, we will come back home to remembering the preciousness of our lives and the lives of all beings. So many people in the world seem to have forgotten this at the moment. Will you help the world by practicing for them?  

May you reclaim natural openness, intelligence, and warmth, ...
May you look closer at your own mind, ...
May your heart experience gladdening, ...
May you remember the preciousness of your human life, ...
May you learn to stay, ...
... for the benefit of all beings.

Sky-like Mind

Rockaway Beach, Oct. 25/2015

A perennial idea that I learned from yoga and  Buddhist meditation teachers is that our minds can both close down to a very narrow view of things, and also open up and see a very wide-open view of things that includes all-beings and all things. So, which view is closer to our True Nature?

In her book, Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves From Old Habits and Fears, Pema Chodron wrote::

"So this is our challenge, the challenge for our spiritual practice and the challenge for the world--how can we train right now, not later, in feeding the right wolf {within our hearts}? How can we call on our innate intelligence to see what helps and what hurts, what escalates aggression and what uncovers our good-heartedness? With the global economy in chaos and the environment of the planet at risk, with war raging and suffering escalating, it is time for each of us in our own lives to take the leap and do whatever we can to help turn things around. Event the slightest gesture toward feeding the right wolf will help. Now more than ever, we are all in this together."

These words, though written some 5 years ago, seem so relevant and even more prescient now. Taking time to slow down and practice something like yoga and/or meditation is definitely something we can do that is a step in the right direction. Leo Tolstoy said:

"Everyone thinks about changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

The message is that in order to help turn things around in the larger world, we have to work on turning things around in the inner world first. So our challenge in our yoga practice is to recognize when we are getting worked up and becoming competitive with ourselves and with each other. Our challenge is to notice when we are beating ourselves up for not feeling adequate and gently bringing our hearts back towards compassion for ourselves. Our challenge is not to escalate aggression within, but rather pause and be kinder to ourselves. Even a small bit of self-compassion can go a long way.

Pema Chodron continues:

"... We all have the ability to interrupt old habits. ... the potential for goodness exists in all beings, ... everyone, everywhere, all over the globe, has these qualities and can call on them to help themselves and others. ... basic goodness is natural openness, the spaciousness of our skyline minds. Fundamentally, our minds are expansive, flexible, and curious; they are pre-prejudice, so to speak. This is the condition of mind before we narrow down into a fear-based view where everyone is either an enemy or a friend, a threat or an ally, this mind that we have, that you and I each have, is open. We can connect with that openness at any time. For instance, right now, for three seconds, just stop reading and pause."

This one word - "pause" - has been significant for me. I practiced pausing in more moments of my life over the last month as a result recognizing the wisdom of this psychic imperative. As I traveled from class to class, or sat down at my computer to do my work, or practiced sitting meditation, I realized pausing is a useful tool to help get me further ahead. When we practice deep breathing in yoga, it is form of "pausing," taking time to not rush through things and opening our minds up to a wider view.

Pema continues:

"... natural openness, is always available. This openness is not something that needs to be manufactured. When we pause, when we touch the energy of the moment, when we slow down and allow a gap, self-existing openness comes to us. It does not require a particular effort. It is available anytime."

From a yoga perspective, an open -- "sky-like" -- mind is the natural state of our mind. Problem is -- life gets in the way and our mind gets bogged down. It takes courage to slow down. It takes courage to even touch the energy of the moment, as Pema suggests above that we do. Some moments, we know, can feel quite hot! I have a feeling that the minds of the Olympic Gold Medal sprinter Michael Johnson and the iconic basketball player Michael Jordan are actually quite open and expansive and sky-like, particularly in the heat of the moment, whether it be at the last few meters of the 100 meter dash or the last minute of the 4th quarter of a close championship game.  They both have the courage to touch the heat of the moment and stay with it. I am not a professional athlete at the level of either, but sometimes this past month I found myself needing to sprint to get to my classes. Even as I ran as fast as I could, I tried to mimic professional sprinters and I found that my mind was actually able to relax and open, rather than tighten from the fear that came on from thinking I would be late for my class. Whether I was moving fast or slow, I discovered that I could indeed touch natural openness if I simply touched the energy of the current moment and focussed on my breaths.

Pema offers a suggests through this inspiring story:

"The next time you're getting worked up, experiment with looking at the sky. Go to the window, if you have one in your home or office, and look up at the sky. I once read an interview with a man who said that during the Second World War, he survived internment in a Japanese concentration camp by looking at the sky and seeing the clouds still drifting there and the birds still flying there. This gave him trust that the goodness of life would go on despite the atrocities that he was witnessing.

Manhattan is filled with numerous tall buildings. As I walked in the area near the massive Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan recently, I stared up and seemed to see more building than sky. Yet, when I paused and really took in the picture, I realized that actually there is more sky than building even here in one of the densest parts of Manhattan. Last week, my mind was bogged down with worries over several massive projects I had going on at once. I found comfort in imagining my mind to be like sky, and tried to remember that eventually these worries would drift away. They did.

Manhattan from the ground up

Pema adds: 

"As [my teacher] Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche once remarked, 'Openness is like the wind. If you open your doors and windows, it's bound to come in'."

Use your yoga practice to train yourself to "open the door and let the wind in." That wind is always there, if you will just allow. It is the doorway to creating a spacious, sky-like mind.

A tight mind sees few possibilities. A spacious mind sees many. Now, not later, choose.

Metta Phrases:
May I know what helps and what hurts, ...
May I pause, ...
May I slow down and allow a gap, ...
May I touch natural openness, ...
May I keep the door to Higher Awareness open, ...
... for the benefit of all beings.

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