True Power

Fall foliage across from the Freedom Tower, 10/20/16.

October 24, 2016

Yoga Friends,

Back around 2008, I got to hear the most venerable Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Master Teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, speak in person. I recall him having a quiet, soft voice, but yet oh, how powerful his presence was. That night after his talk, my friend Jo-Anne, purchased an autographed copy of his book The Art of Power for me. I devoured it at the time.

Recently, this passage from the book has been resonating with me:

... Our society is founded on a very limited definition of power, namely wealth, professional success, fame, physical strength, military might, and political control. My dear friends, I suggest that there is another kind of power, a greater power: the power to be happy in the present moment, free from addiction, fear, despair, discrimination, anger, and ignorance. This power is the birthright of every human being, whether celebrated or unknown, rich or poor, strong or weak. 

Many come to yoga practice primarily to develop physical power through increasing strength and flexibility. Recently, I was teaching a health club yoga class and a student came to me prior to the start asking if this was going to be a Power Yoga class. Upon assuring her that it was, she said "good, because I need to work on my power." Inwardly I knew that was a code for "I need you to make it challenging and super tough because I need to build a lot of strength." So she situated herself in the front of the class, did a lot of vinyasas with hand-stand option and moved very quickly, and left before doing savasana. I knew she was totally missing the point of what yoga is supposed to be all about. And, I knew, as a long time teacher now, to just teach to people where they are currently at in their understanding.

The promise of yoga is truly something much, much bigger than just getting a good, hard workout. The practice has the potential to help us develop an inner joy so strong that it can withstand the torrent of stresses we encounter, especially here in New York City.

There are people who have attained much wealth and high positions who are ostensibly powerful but yet are miserable, and there are poor people who living in constant and abiding joy. 

May you remember your true inner powers, ... for the benefit of all beings

aloha, with metta,
Paul

Chopping Wood, Carrying Water

Moon over Times Square, 10/14/16

Yoga Friends,
 
Another Monday is upon us. It's time for most people -- perhaps save for theatre folk -- to head back to work. Back to our routines. ... Sigh. ... Or maybe not?
 
Undoubtedly you've heard the oft-quoted Zen saying:
 
Before Enlightenment, I chop wood and carry water.
After Enlightenment, I chop wood and carry water.
 
I believe this pithy phrase wisely suggests that engaging in the simplest acts -- chopping wood and carrying water -- can be a pathway towards enlightenment.
 
I also believe it is suggesting that although Enlightenment may be the goal, it's not where we should be putting our attention. Rather, we should put it on doing the simplest things that are laying right in front of us. Doing so, lightens us up.
 
Also, having routines is an anchor for us. Our routines help us to order our worlds in a way that helps us to negotiate through it with ease and grace. 
 
The Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment at age 35. He lived into his 80's. Undoubtedly the Buddha himself continued to practice meditation - continued chopping wood and carrying water -- even after he became Awakened. 
 
Maybe in this lifetime, through your own regular yoga and meditation practices, you'll attain Enlightenment. Still, to maintain it, you'll still have to keep practicing both. 
 
Like the moon, keep showing up daily.
 
May you chop wood and carry water, ... for the benefit of all beings.
 
May you make it through another Monday with Grace.
 
aloha, with metta,
Paul

Showing Up

SUNSET AT ROCKAWAY BEACH, 10/19/16

Yoga Friends, 

Pattabhi Jois was one of the 20th Century's most important and prominent yoga masters. He uttered many brief words of wisdom during his lifetime of teaching. Here is one of the more prominent of his philosophies: 

Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.

Indeed, in order to become really good at anything the most important thing is to simply show up. It's easy to get heady and try to explain how things are supposed to work, but there is so much learning to be had simply by showing up, exploring, and using direct experience to be the best teacher.

One of my and my partner Ed's favorite cable tv shows is The Incredible Dr. Pol. He is a veterinarian in Michigan and his clinic treats animals large and small, exotic and common. In a recent episode, he was helping a newly minted veterinarian fresh out of school with a surgical procedure she was struggling with. Paraphrasing Dr. Pol, he commented, "they don't really teach you how to do things in veterinary school. Really you have to just get into the practice and do it, and learn by doing."

Whether the goal is enlightenment or building a great organization, you've just got to show up and do the doing. In a world where so many people are constantly careening from one passion to another, the secret to being successful is just sticking with something for the long haul and do the daily doing. The author Elizabeth Gilbert spoke about creativity in an interview with On Being host Krista Tippett. In it, she said:

Everything that is interesting is 90% boring. 

Paradoxical, yes, but true. Great things are built by hour after hour just showing up and as my friend Laurine likes to say "pad-dum, pad-dum" - ing over and over again.

Most moments of my own meditation practice are quite boring, but after having practiced on most days for the past 15 years or so, the results have been quite interesting. Overall, my life feels more stable than it did in the years prior. And I have a palpable sense that I am able to be more compassionate towards myself now than I was able to be in my early adult years.

May you just show up to practice whatever it is you're trying to get good at.

May the things your eventually create benefit all beings.

aloha, with metta,

paul

Curiosity, Pt. 3

Rockaway Beach on 9/25/16, displaying a gorgeous sunset. The water reflected the sky and was a translucent blue so beautiful that I thought I was back home in Hawaii.

Yoga Friends,
 
Last week I shared that the Author Elizabeth Gilbert explores what it means to live a creative life in her book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. In an interview with On Being host Krista Tippett, she shared these thoughts on how our relationship with curiosity can help us:

ou think of curiosity as our friend that teaches us how to become ourselves. And, it's a very gentle friend. And a very forgiving friend. And a very constant one. Passion is not so constant, not so gentle, not so forgiving, and sometimes not so available. And so the we live in a world that has come to fetishize passion above all, there's a great deal of pressure around that.

These words hit home for me personally this week as I was working on a grant application that had many parts to it and a lot of technical challenges as well. Also, it had a deadline. As I approached doing it, I found myself experiencing fear and apprehension. I had thoughts like, would I get it done in time? Would I be able to answer each question? Would my answers be good enough? But, during the process, I also found myself saying, I wonder what I am going to learn with each step I take? I wonder what I am going to discover if I just show up and be present with each part to this? And as I remained curious, and open to the process, and willing to just let the doing be my best teacher, step-by-step, I finished the application and submitted in on time. Choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear really helped me get through this process.
 
Truly, I felt the gentleness that being curious could bring. I felt how forgiving it could be too. I thought, so what if what I produce isn't perfect? I'll just learn something useful in the process and know that the next time it will be even better. 

But most importantly in the process I felt I became more of myself. I became more and more clear about my own voice, and took pride in it's uniqueness.
 
Similarly, yoga and meditation are very gentle friends, and very forgiving friends too. Unlike so many things we do in our life that involve us setting goals, and that put pressure on us to produce outcomes by a certain time in the future and meet other people's expectations, yoga and meditation work in the opposite way. They don't really care whether we get fully enlightened in this lifetime or a future one. There is no deadline in yoga by which time we have to be able to do a headstand. Yoga and meditation really just want us to show up, do the doing, and be our own authentic selves. They clear the debris to help us find our own voice and to share that with the world. 
 
We all have a voice. We all have a capacity to be creative. We all can witness how passion ebbs and flows as we continue down our path, then just choose to be curious to help us to keep going. In the end, we all can be our own best friends, and that would truly be a gift for the world.
 
As you practice returning over and over again to being curious, may your creative outcomes truly benefit all beings everywhere.
 
aloha, with metta,
paul

Curiosity, Pt. 2

Rockaway Beach, 9/25/16, first weekend of autumn

Yoga Friends,
 
Author Elizabeth Gilbert's (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) latest book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, explores what it means to live a creative life. In an interview with Krista Tippett, her philosophy was summarized in this way:
 
Creativity in life as in art is choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear.
 
Truly, when we are in a creative state of mind, our minds experience openness and expansiveness, a sort of "anything is possible" attitude.
 
As yoga and meditation take hold deeper in our lives, we are also training in adopting an expansive view of the human condition and an "anything is possible" attitude. Both free us up to experience more of life, just as it is, as it is unfolding.
 
In my own life recently, I've been met with a lot of uncertainties, so many that in some moments I have been paralyzed by fear. What has really helped me get through it all has been returning over and over again to an abiding curiosity. 
 
And remembering that this is a universal experience felt by most if not all people have helped me to not take it so personally when it happens.
 
As you practice choosing the path of curiosity over the path of fear, may your creative outcomes truly benefit of all beings everywhere.
 
aloha, with metta,
paul

Curiosity

Master Teacher Pema Chödrön 

Yoga Friends,
 
The Buddhist Meditation Teacher, Pema Chödrön, was interviewed by Bill Moyers a while back. This advice has resonated with me ever since:

The best spiritual instruction is when you wake up in the morning ... say, "I wonder what's going to happen today," ... and carry that kind of curiosity through your life."
 
A goal of practicing yoga and meditation is to keep the mind open and spacious. Curiosity is one tool that we can use to help us work towards that.
 
As I've worked recently to scale up my nonprofit organization, Keoni Movement Arts, I've experienced so much uncertainty. Should I do "...?" Will my actions bear fruit? What has helped has been an abiding curiosity. I've asked myself over and over again, I wonder what will happen if I try "...?" This feeling of curiosity has freed me up a little each time from being frozen by my fear of the unknown outcomes.
 
None of us truly knows what will happen to us today, tomorrow, or this week. Curiosity can help us to take that next action.
 
May you remain curious, ... for the benefit of all beings everywhere.
 
aloha, with metta,
paul

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