Yoga and the Art of Being Content in a Time of Discontent

Gray skies may indicate discontent in the outer world, but these flowers and leaves seem very content with the way things are just as they are right now. It's a lesson for all of us at this time.

New York City is slowly climbing back from the deepest throes of the shut-down back in April, May. The health and wellness, and entertainment industries in which I work in New York City have been closed down for just over 4 months now due to the pandemic. I haven’t been able to fly down to Florida to see my husband in over 5 months. I, for one, am starting to feel inner rumblings of wanting things to return a little more to the way things were 5 months ago. Surely, many reasons to feel discontent. And yet, I know, continued patience is called for. And I also know that this is the time to practice the yoga niyama (observance) called Samtosha or Contentment.

According to the Yoga Sutras (Chapter 2, Sutra 42),

"From an attitude of contentment (santosha), limitless happiness, mental comfort, joy and satisfaction occur." 

Here are some commentaries on this sutra from prominent yoga teachers:

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 an acceptance of whatever is. 
– Mehtab 

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 fully. … Samtosha is the ability to remain present with, and in fact remain happy with, the circumstances of just this moment. 
– Judith Lasater

And then, of course, one of the greatest spiritual teachers of all time, the Buddha, taught:

“Contentment is the greatest wealth.”
– Dhammapada 204

So even in the midst of the rages of the pandemic, I’ve found it helpful to remember how lucky I am with the way things are in some respects. I still have food on the table and a roof over my head. I realize many others are struggling with that at the moment. The extra amounts of quiet time I’ve been bathing in has helped me to reflect on my life and the directions it was going in pre-pandemic and begin to set new priorities and S.O.P.s when this is behind us. Yes, I’ve had to give up certain freedoms (like enjoying a good restaurant meal), have had to restrict my movements around the city, and have had to keep my mask on everywhere I go outside my apt. But I’ve also been able to protect my own health and feel good about protecting the health of my loved ones. And I’ve learned to be more self-sufficient – cooking more, learning to cut my own hair, exercising on my own daily – all things I might not have done before this all started. 

What has helped build contentment within me has been micro-practices such as these:
1)   Dharma Teacher, Tempel Smith, suggests we “Incline the mind towards contentment over dissatisfaction.” Doing so, he says, will move us closer to the highest yogic experience – samadhi or realization. For me, it means daily and sometimes moment-by-moment practicing of moving my mind towards being OK with things just as they are in this moment, and gently accepting things as they are.
2)   BJ Fogg, social science research associate at Stanford University and author of books on persuasion techniques, suggests:
a)  “Lower your expectations!” This one is great for me to remember, as I often strive to achieve too much.
b)  “Celebrate your behavior – give yourself an ‘awesome’ affirmation every once in a while.” It’s been nice to pause and give myself little pats on the back every now and then.
c)  “Plant a tiny seed in the right spot and it will grow without coaxing.” During the pandemic, I’ve tried to develop little habits – e.g. a short set of sit-ups at the end of my daily yoga practice, a short routine of yin yoga before bedtime, an extra serving of fruits and vegetables every day – that have remained consistent and even grown over the past 4 months.
3)   Krishna Das suggests accepting and working with one’s own karmic stains from the past, and negotiating them as best one can in this lifetime. So, I try not to worry too much about trying to be the perfect yogi or meditator, but just being the best I can be given the limitations of my own karmic baggage.

I don’t know what your personal situation is and what karmic baggage is playing out in your life at the moment, but I do have empathy for what you’re experiencing. I hope you can remember, as I’ve had to, that though we’ve endured a lot, we still have much capacity to endure more. If it means saving a life – whether ours or someone else’s – that will surely bring contentment to your being.

May you endure for just one more day, … 
May you know you are wealthy already … 
May you be inclined towards contentment, … 
For the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Yoga and the Art of Working with Insecurity

A Sunday in the Park, nothing more delightful than animals and children laughing! Two of our most vulnerable -- children and Geese -- enjoying each other.

Feeling insecure lately? Read on!

New York City is finally coming out of its shutdown, but the pandemic is still raging on in parts of our beloved, yet troubled country – sadly due to much willful denial. Racial injustice is front and center in our collective awareness, as opposed to being buried in back pages of the news, where it all too often has been. Unemployment is in the double digits, and my two beloved work/life passions – teaching and acting – are still shut down. It’s all enough to make one feel very insecure!

Yet, I am hopeful.

I’ve often referred back to an interview I saw in the early 2000’s that Bill Moyers had with Pema Chodron. Among the many memorable quotes I remember hearing Pema say was this one (paraphrasing): 

When an old culture is dying, the new culture will be formed by men and women who are not afraid of insecurity.

I think her comment was so foretelling! Here we have a president who is hyper-insecure and who tries to hide it by bullying and bashing others. Contrast that with the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, who is seemingly not afraid to show his insecurities, vulnerabilities, and fallibilities. If Pema is correct, perhaps we are in a period where an old culture is dying and a new – and hopefully better – one is forming. Hopefully!

As practitioners of yoga and meditation, we get to sit back and observe our own insecurities play out. And rather than give into our habitual pattern of running away from our insecurities, we have the increased capacity to let them play out, not deny nor run away from them, and hopefully develop more compassion along the way. Pema offers us more guidance here:

In the process of discovering bodhichitta (our spiritual warrior nature), the journey goes down, not up. It’s as if the mountain pointed toward the center of the earth instead of reaching into the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. We jump into it. We slide into it. We tiptoe into it. We move toward it however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of bodhichitta. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die.

If we are going to be able to be useful in any way to ourselves and to others, we must be willing to touch our insecurities. We must be willing to see our fears, vulnerabilities, and failings, and not run in the other direction. And fortunately, yoga and meditation provide the perfect conduit for these energies to flow and ultimately be transformed into something useful. 

As Sharon Salzberg, another prominent western Buddhist meditation teacher, says here:

There is a saying in the Chinese tradition: "If you want to understand the nature of water, look at the waves." If we look deeply into the waves of phenomena of the body and mind, we will see the 3 characteristics that are, according to the Buddha, the nature of life: change, insecurity, and egolessness.

Life is an ebbing and flowing from one part of our true nature to another. I don’t know, really, that as we grow older that we ever don’t experience insecurity. But I do think that as we grow older, we develop more of an ability to not let our insecurities overwhelm us. And hopefully, as we age we bear witness to more and more change to the point where it doesn’t bother us as much when things do change. Probably most importantly for us as yoga and meditation practitioners is that our practices over the long-term begins to quell our ego.

The yogi and author, Sadhguru, says:

‘I do not know’ is not a negative state of mind. Every discovery has come from this realization.

For sure, during this period of the pandemic, all of us have awoken each morning experiencing “not knowing.” For sure, it’s caused feelings of insecurity to arise within. For me, I had to reimagine how Keoni Movement Arts, the nonprofit I founded, was going to operate. It took a lot of enduring the daily grind of waking up each morning, acknowledging there was a lot I didn’t know, and as I asked more questions than I had answers for, being open to the answers somehow appearing. For sure, I have had many new realizations and made many new discoveries along the way during these past 3-1/2 months. As uncomfortable as the feelings have been, the experience also gave me a new sense of confidence in my ability to be able to figure things out. I acknowledge now that none of this would have happened if I wasn’t open to accepting “I do not know.”

I really do think that insecurity is going to be seen as the new machismo, and vulnerability will be seen as the new sign of strength. For the sake of our beloved experiments with democracy, I surely hope I am right. For now, I can only suggest that as yogis/nis and meditators that we seek strength through being vulnerable.

Lastly, during these turbulent times, let us not remember one of the Buddha’s important teachings:

With gentleness overcome anger.
With generosity overcome meanness.
With truth overcome deceit.

Let’s use our yoga and meditation practices to ride the waves of insecurity and transform them into something that is useful for all. Let’s start by being gentle and generous towards and truthful with ourselves.

May you ride the waves of your insecurities, …
May you embrace “I do not know”, … 
May you discover the love deep within yourself that will not die, …
For the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Talk about feeling insecure!

Yoga and the Art of Being Pono, Balanced

My teddy bear acting a balancing ball for this playground seal.

The end of May is here. At last. All around us signs of life are springing up.

As we reopen and resume normality, a fundamental question we can ask ourselves is: " is this pono?"

In Hawaii, where I was born, there is a practice of asking: “is it pono?” We learn this from a young age, as children. Essentially this means (according to this source): “… for Hawaiians. To be pono means to be in a state of harmony or balance with oneself, others, the land, work and life itself. … [At every step in our life we ask] ‘will what I am about to do help bring harmony and good into the world?’”

A goal of yoga is to achieve balance, or a feeling of equanimity in our minds, both on and off our yoga mats. Thus, as we practice the physical asana, a useful question we can ask ourselves each step of the way: “is what I am doing right now, how I am relating to myself in this yoga posture, going to bring harmony and good into my world, and by extension to the outer worlds as well?” If we can answer “yes” to this, then we will achieve more balance.

From the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sutra 2.62 reads:

Sthira sukham asanam

Essentially this means that in yoga postures (this sutra speaks specifically of meditation posture, the original yoga posture), there has to be a balance of steady effort with comfort and ease. Balance exists in the equality of this opposition. Another way of saying this is in everything we do, we have to balance equally our efforts – to provide steadiness and stability – with surrender – to provide lightness and comfort.

Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy, from Yoga Alliance, suggests:

Ask yourself, “How can I find balance between effort and ease? What steps am I taking every day – on and off the mat – that allow me to transform my world?”

This is particularly relevant right now at this time when the world is experiencing events of perhaps cataclysmic proportions. Yes, we need to balance our outrage and protests against the deaths of black men like George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery with the spaciousness of mind to allow for a bigger understanding to emerge so that compassion and grace can help to lay the foundation for solutions to arise that ultimately will create a better world. Yes, we have to balance seriously following the guidelines of the medical experts on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 with the courage to begin to venture out safely, for both ourselves and the larger community. In this situation, yes, it is the pono thing to do to wear a mask out in public, for the good of all. Please do this so that we don’t risk another uptick in the infection and death rates, which will cause us to have to go into shelter-in-place again.

But as we balance venturing both outward and inward, it’s good to remember this passage from the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna says to Arjuna:

You have control over your actions alone, never over its fruits.
Live not for the fruits of action,
Nor attach yourself in inaction.
Established in yoga, O Arjuna, perform actions having abandoned attachment, 
And having become balanced in success and failure.
For balance of mind is called yoga.

The goal of yoga is not to be able to stand on your head. The goal of yoga is to help us to live in pono with the ourselves and the entire planet. Now, go forth and use your yoga practice to help the world out of these messes in a pono kind of way.

May you be steady and comfortable in all your actions, …
May you let go of success and failure, …
May you do what is pono, …  
For the benefit of all beings everywhere. 

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Addendum, posted 6/1/20: It occurred to me yesterday after reading this NY Times editorial by the sister of Chris Cooper — the black man who was bird-watching in Central Park when a white woman attempted to call the police on him — that this was an example of pono in action. Chris acted with equanimity and calm as he confronted the woman. Acting gracefully while under the fire of explicit/implicit racism, his actions will certainly lead to transformative conversations about the racism that exists in all of us. Bravo Chris for practicing yoga off the mat with both sthira and sukha, and for remaining balanced through it all.

#meditationfun. Life is a real balancing act for both me and my teddy bear right now!

Yoga and the Art of Working with the Unknown, part 2

The sky above may be cloudy and grey, but spring keeps springing as leaves are awakening into an unknown future.

Here it is, April 30th and most of us are becoming loopy by being in lockdown. I read a quote from the Chopra Center, which said: Instead of rigidly clinging to the familiar, embrace the unknown.  This will spark your creativity. In a way, we’ve all been forced to work with the unknown by not clinging to the familiar and by embracing not knowing. And for sure, it has sparked a lot of creativity in all of us. 

For me, it’s shown up in being creative in things like cutting my own hair! Fortunately, I have 2 mirrors which I can place in front and in back of me – who knew one could do a relatively decent job of cutting one’s own hair!

It’s also been a time for me to re-up my cooking skills and make use of things that had been in my cupboards too long. I used some old almond butter to substitute for peanut butter in my Thai Massaman Curry dish, which turned out great!

Working with the unknown has also meant letting go of trying to get things right but rather just doing what we have to do, daily. The Hindu Teacher Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said:

“You just do what needs to be done, leaving success and failure to the unknown. For everything is caused by innumerable factors, of which your personal endeavour is but one. Yet such is the magic of man's mind and heart that the most improbable happens when human will and love pull together.”

For sure, this whole pandemic situation will result in a lot of suffering. But also, for sure, it will also bring out qualities of faith, resilience, and action in the face of not knowing. And in a way – especially as yoga practitioners – we are called upon to act, doing what needs to be done, even if we don’t know what will result from our actions. 

Nisargadatta Maharaj’s statement also reminds us that we are all interconnected, which is what yoga teaches us. And somehow through each of our individual acts of kindness, generosity, and ingenuity at this time, we will somehow build upon each other’s actions and create in some ways a better future world. Will we learn that we need far less than we thought we did? For the sake of the planet, I do think and hope so.

In considering how to work with the unknown, we have the examples of numerous artists all around us. The prominent 20th Century choreographer, Agnes de Mille, said:

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what's next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess.
We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”

During this pandemic, the arts community has been one of the most greatly affected. With theaters and movie studios shuttered, jobs have been lost or put on hold. Yet artists constantly live and work with the unknown, and are constantly taking leaps into the dark. Artists tend to be very resilient types be as they’re used to be being battered around and still in the end finding a way through the challenges. But there is some comfort in knowing that it’s OK to guess at life, and maybe even that it’s OK to not know how. The human experience, I think, is best and most exhilaratingly lived when we step away from our controlling mind and step into the flow of life, allowing the path to reveal itself one step at a time. In this way, working with the unknown is not something to be feared, but rather to be welcomed. If this approach worked well for such a creative genius as Agnes de Mille, and resulted in amazing works of movement arts, the it’s good enough and welcome for me!

As the Japanese Zen Priest, Kosho Uchiyama, said: “When we let go of all our notions about things, everything becomes really true.” For sure, during this time of immense unknown we’ve been forced to let go of a lot of our notions about things. But hopefully, if there is any silver lining to all of this, it’s that we can see life in its rawest truth more clearly. 

May you do what needs to be done, …
May you leave your successes and failures to the unknown, …
May the improbable happen, …
May you let go of your notions about things, … 
May you take an artistic leap into the darkness, … 
For the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Yoga and the Art of Working with the Unknown (part 1)

View from midtown Manhattan, March 30th. We know the Light is there, we just don't know when it will shine brightly again.

Here it is, March 31st – the last day of an extraordinary month in human history. So much calamity, fear, and suffering, and also so many opportunities for ingenuity, generosity and discipline to arise.

We are bathed in a lot of quiet right now, something that most people like me who live in New York City are not used to. Yet, in some ways, as yoga practitioners, we’ve been preparing ourselves for this moment. It’s almost like we’ve been forced to go on that silent meditation retreat that we’ve long wished we had the time  in our busy lives to carve out for and do. Now, many of us have that time.

For this month’s theme in my yoga classes, I went back to one of my favorites that I’ve shared in the past. Little did I know back at the beginning of this month when I chose my theme that it would end up being so apropos to this particular moment.

Many years ago I listened to Bill Moyers interviewing Pema Chödrön. I never forgot what she said:

The best spiritual instruction is when you wake up in the morning and say “I wonder what’s going to happen today,” … and carry that kind of curiosity through your life.

The goal of practicing yoga and meditation is to try to keep the mind open and spacious, and keep it from becoming clouded over. One of the best ways to do that is remain curious. It will help free the mind to consider possibilities, rather than get bogged down in limited thinking.

And I don’t know where or when this thought came to me, but someone once said:

Revel in not knowing.
Unknown

Yes, not knowing can be scary. And, it can be liberating as well. 

Most of us are facing a lot of questions that cannot be answered at this time. And since we don’t have a playbook for this moment, most of us are flying by the seat of our pants. 

But what if we gave ourselves the space and the OK to not know. Might we be able to even dare ourselves in reveling in not knowing? In this way, life can become thrilling, not threatening, as Pema Chödrön likes saying. 

Don’t think you’re alone in your fears. To that, Pema says:

There is a common misunderstanding among the human beings who have ever been born on earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get comfortable. You see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us are the same. A much more interesting, kind and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our curiosity is bitter or sweet. …

So, working with the unknown right now involves cultivating the capacity to remain curious for longer periods of time. It involves being more fully in the present moment by returning to the feeling of the breath over and over again. It involves becoming your own best yoga teacher by cultivating a regular daily personal routine. It doesn’t have to be long. Just do a few sun salutations, maybe a shoulder stand or head stand, and savasana. 

I hope that your yoga and meditation practices heretofore have prepared you for this moment.

May your mind be curious, …
May your mind be open and freer, …
May you somehow seize this moment, …
For the benefit of all beings everywhere. 

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Yoga and the Art of Practicing Love

Nature exhibiting the Art of Practicing Love

I have a fantasy about what happens when you die. In my wildest imagination, I think that at that moment we pass into an awareness of an overwhelming sense of being held in love.

Valentine’s Day is an occasion to deepen one’s relationship with one’s beloved, one’s significant other. It can also be an opportunity to deepen our love for our own selves, to honor our own beings, and to listen to the callings of our own hearts. It is an opportunity for some of our own self-loathing patterns to die, and for us to be re-born into a deepening awareness of love for self.

According to Buddhist Teachers, Narayan Liebenson Grady, the Buddha taught:

We can search this entire world over and will not find anyone more deserving of our love and compassion than our self.

And yet for many of us, this is a tricky thing as we disentangle ourselves of our occasional acts of self-hatred and self-denigration. Most if not all humans experience this from time to time. And I would say that it is our calling as yoga practitioners to try to meet those moments with self-love and compassion, best we can.

The Buddha also taught:

If you truly loved yourself, you would never harm another.

I think the Buddha is trying to get us to see the “us” in each other, that if we were to harm another it is like we are harming our own selves too. 

Also, I think the Buddha could have said too that if we truly loved ourselves, we would never think of harming our own selves. Of course, the trap is that we can commit another act of self-denigration in those moments when we make mistakes and react by calling ourselves stupid. Or even when our failure to not harm ourselves at times of stress is another opportunity for getting down on ourselves for not having responded or reacted better. Our work is to try to cultivate more compassion for ourselves in such moments. We are not alone, everyone makes mistakes and thinks less of themselves from time to time. Our work is to try to remember that.

Because the Buddha also famously taught:

Hatred is never ended by hatred, but by love alone is hatred healed. This is an eternal rule.

We see so much violence out in the larger world and we see the pileup of hatred being responded to with more hatred. And where has that gotten us? More suffering, both internally and collectively. So, our work is to start by healing the hatred within first, and trying to meet it with love.

Why is this important? Because according to the Dalai Lama:

If a person has never encountered love toward himself or herself from any quarter, it is a very sad thing.  But if that person can meet even one person who will show unconditional love – simple acceptance and compassion – if he knows that he is an object of someone else's affection and love, it is bound to have an impact, and this will be appreciated.  Because there is a seed in himself, this act of love will start to catalyze or ripen that seed. 

So, our work becomes about trying to perfect the art of practicing love toward our own sef first, so that we have more love to share with others, especially those who have experienced very little. Every little act of love toward our own self will eventually ripple out to the rest of the world and have some positive impact sometime, somewhere.

In New York City where I live, we are constantly confronted by homeless people, and I sometimes wonder what kind of childhoods they had. I was fortunate in that I grew up in a family with parents who loved me unconditionally and showed me love in so many ways, whether it was by being touched tenderly or with kind words. As a child, I experienced caring and concern from those immediately around me. I know I was lucky. And it is obvious to me that many homeless people in our city likely didn’t receive the same kind of love and support. So, whether you live in a city like NYC or elsewhere, our job is to try to extend acts of love towards those who are so obviously less fortunate than ourselves. Who knows really what that could bloom into. Surely it can have a small, but not insignificant positive effect that could ripple out into the larger world.

The director, writer and composer, Jerry Brunskill said:

At the critical juncture in all human relationships, there is only one question: what would love do now?

I hope this question can be a guiding force for you as you go through your day and are faced with a myriad of decisions. What would love do in each moment for you as you “write your yoga blog” or think about your career choices, or interact with your beloveds? 

May you feel the natural rhythm of the Universe’s heart-beat pulsing through you, …
May you return to love of self over and over again, …
May you ask “What would love do now?” often, …
May your perfect that Art of Practicing Love, … 
For the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Yoga and the Art of Practicing ... Yoga!

Try, try, and try again … and one day your yoga practice might help you to take flight!

If you’re like me, you wake up each day and make a to-do list. In some ways it’s one of the hardest things I do each day. I usually start by listing the things I know I have to do. But it starts to get hard when I list all the things I wish I could do today, then I have to pare back and be realistic and pick the 2 or 3 major things that I know I have to do. Aaah, my ego likes getting in the way and think I can accomplish everything it wants because I am Superman! Not!!!

This is where yoga can be helpful.

I don’t know where I read this yoga maxim, but someone wisely said:

What you can do is what you should do.

In my many years of teaching yoga, I have found that this is a difficult thing to practice for many, and particularly for newer, less experienced students, It’s easy for the ego to take hold and for students to push themselves through extreme discomfort, bordering on pain.

The stage of the ego belongs to the young and new, and the mature yoga practitioner knows when to hold back, do less. It’s similar in acting, by the way, as the most accomplished actors know how to affect their audience more by doing less.

So, the art of practicing yoga, in some ways, mirrors the art of practicing life. What’s been particularly helpful to me as I have grown older (60 this year!) is that more and more now I dislike pushing myself to the limit. Recently, for example, I have found I like shutting down my computer earlier than I used to, and putting my work day behind me. I am liking physical and mental comfort more and more, and I don’t think that’s always a bad thing. So what if I don’t reach enlightenment in this lifetime, despite my daily meditation practices? That’s not so important.

The art of practicing yoga also involves remembering what the goals, intentions of the practice are. From the yoga sutras of Patanjali, the first few verses are: Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah. Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam. Vritti sarupyam itaratra. These words essentially mean that the outcome we are striving for in yoga is to quiet down the mind’s movements so that our true nature can be revealed to us, so that we can see a clearer reflection of who we really are. Our minds are like lenses that need to be polished and cleaned, otherwise we will falsely identify with the distortions and come to believe those labels we place on ourselves (Superman, billionaire, yoga guru, ??? – you pick!) are who we really are. Only when the mind is quiet, can we rest in our True Nature. When the mind is not quiet one identifies with the thoughts one is having and believes — wrongly — these thoughts are who one really is. In other words, the art of practicing yoga involves trying to slow down your mindʻs movements, so you donʻt believe every thought going through your head.

The accomplished and widely respected yoga master, B.K.S. Iyengar, said:

The primary aim of yoga is to restore the mind to simplicity and peace, and free it from confusion and distress.

I love this, as it serves as a good reminder for me that I should never make an important decision when I am feeling confused and distressed. The art of practicing yoga means that we should walk away the situation at hand at such moments, and take some good exhales.

Yoga is all about meeting yourself where you are at in this moment, not where you wish to be. That’s probably the simplest and yet the hardest lesson any of us will have to learn.

May you be happy,
May your mind slow down,
May you only do what you can do, …
May you be successful at practicing the art of yoga well, …
For the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha with Metta,
Paui Keoni Chun

Aaah, the warmth of the sun on the back. Always a great feeling! This is truly the art of practicing yoga -- slouching toward comfort!

Yoga and the Art of Practicing Generosity

Davnel, Keoni Movemwnt Arts student, enjoying dancing!

At this time of the year, these words by the Venerable Ariya Nani always come back to my mind:

If you knew what I know about generosity and the results of giving, you would not let one single day go by without giving something to someone else.
– The Buddha, as interpreted by the Venerable Ariya Nani

What might the Buddha have meant by this teaching?  Well, according to the Buddhist Meditation Teacher, Gina Sharpe: 

Generosity is the very first parami, or quality of an awakened mind. The path begins there because of the joy and openness that arise from the generous heart.

Think about it. Whenever we give to someone else, it makes us feel happy. It brings our mind to the awareness that we have abundance, more than enough to sustain us. When our mind is aware of this abundance, we benefit by feeling lighter and less fearful and worried. And of course, whatever it is that we give away can make someone else’s life feel more abundant. So in order for one’s mind to be awakened, having the experience of spaciousness and abundance first leads to lightness and freedom. 

According to another teacher, Kamala Masters:

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 would add that practicing generosity frees our mind and hearts from the delusion that it is somehow lacking. It can bring the mind to a starting point of existing in a place of wealth, not poverty. 

To me, the art of practicing generosity entails: 

1. Taking time daily to lessen our burdens by letting go of that which we no longer need and want.

2. Remembering that we have much more than we need and always have something we can give away – whether it be something material like money or something immaterial but no less important like a kind smile to or patience with another.

3. Remembering that we are more than just our current possessions – both material and psychic – but we are also our potential for manifesting more of the material and psychic things that we truly want and need.

4. Practicing Generosity with ourselves. We all experience the negativity of life, and it is our human nature to “go to the negative” before seeing the positive. At these times, we must be generous in our kindness towards and patience with our own selves.

5. Remembering that there is a flow to life that we are always free step into. Practicing generosity with ourselves means not resisting that flow. Practicing generosity towards others means not resisting their flow. 

So, as you close out your old year, see if you can come into the new year with a greater sense of freedom. Let go of the old, lighten your load of both the material and the psychic. Remember all that you have and share it with the world. 

May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be generous,
May you enter the new year with a greater sense of freedom, …
For your benefit and for the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha, with Metta,
Paul Keoni Chun

May you fly into your new year with courage, humility, and grace!

Yoga and the Art of Practicing Gratitude

My favorite tree in my building - it makes me feel so happy when I walk by, and I am grateful for that! It reminds me that there is still much beauty in things that are aging.

It’s that time of the year again. A time when we quiet down a bit during the hustle and bustle of the holidays to reflect on how lucky we are to be alive, to have what we have, and to experience – hopefully – gratitude.

For me personally, as I reflect on where I am right now in my life, I am so grateful for all that I have – which is indeed plentiful at the moment. As I write this, I am on my way to Hawai’I for a wedding celebration with my family and our close friends of one year of marriage to my husband Ed. I am grateful to have meaningful and impactful work, to feel like I am fulfilling my life passions, and to have an abiding sense of ease and well-being In my life right now. Notice I didn’t say I am grateful to have a million dollars in my bank account. Indeed, as I was doing my daily morning routine of writing in my “gratitude journal / morning page” (which I have been doing since 1996!), I wrote “once in the beginning, I feel like I know what Nirvana is.” To me, at this moment, Nirvana is a feeling of having few worries and life-stresses, and a feeling of confidence that things will flow as they need to and an abiding feeling that the Universe always provides elegant solutions to each of our challenges.

How can we experience more gratitude in our lives regularly? Here are three possible ways from three master teachers:

1) Whether you are a fan of Deepak Chopra or not, I think you would agree with what he says here: Breathing in gratitude, we breathe out joy. This simplicity is the key to our vitality. We spend years searching for the key, looking high and low. The journey home begins when we realize that the key is hiding in our own pocket. Whether we are practicing yoga on the mat, or sitting in meditation, or just moving through life, we can do a simple mantra with each breath – inhaling quietly say “gratitude,” exhaling quietly say “joy.” The journey back home to experiencing an ease of well-being starts with each breath.

2) One of my favorite Buddhist Meditation Teachers, Gina Sharpe, reminds us that every breath we take in is a gift we receive from all the plants on Earth. The plants process what they receive from us – our carbon dioxide – and transform it into something that allows us to sustain our metabolic processes – oxygen. So, all life on earth is constantly giving to and receiving from each other. Gina writes: I find it so helpful to just remember that which I call “me” is an expression of an ever changing, timeless and unstoppable process of giving and receiving, and in remembering, relaxing again and again in gratitude, allowing it all to unfold. When we reflect like this, gratitude arises naturally and openly, saturating every breath, every moment with the joy of simply being alive. Gina reminds us, like Deepak, that our breath can be the entry point to helping us experience the arising of gratitude from within.

3) One of my favorite of the Buddha’s teachings is based on his assertion that receiving a human birth is extremely rare and exceedingly precious. One of the analogies he used to illustrate this is that the chances of us 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. Quite extraordinary odds indeed! He would often instruct his monks to go out into the forest, sit at the base of a tree, and do a practice called “gladdening the heart.” Essentially the heart of this practice was for the monks to reflect on the many fortunate circumstances that had brought them to be there in that time and space, and to have tools at their disposal to be able to seek freedom and liberation. As practitioners of yoga, like-wise we can reflect on just how lucky we are not only to have this chance at a human experience – such as it is with all its joys and challenges – but also that yoga has traveled from the faraway East to being literally at our fingertips and that it is a tool that can help us to realize more gratitude and joy.

Gina concludes by saying: May your Thanksgiving celebration be alive with gratitude and love. Indeed, may you be experiencing that right now.

May you be happy,
May you live with ease,
May you inhale gratitude, and exhale joy,
May you, with each breath, remember how lucky you are to be alive.
May you remember all the tools for liberation that are in your pockets and at your fingertips,
May you feel alive with deep feelings of gratitude and love, …
For the benefit of All Beings.

Aloha with Metta,
Paul Keoni

Yoga and the Art of Practicing Ahimsa, à la Gandhi

My husband Ed ever so gently stroking a shark at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, Sarasota, FL that the shark just continued on its merry way. He's showing, like Gandhi said, that in a gentle way you can shake the world.

Quite serendipitously an “inspirational” email landed in my inbox at the beginning of October that mentioned Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2nd, 1869 – 150 years ago this month. Particularly because of all the political and social turmoil happening both domestically and internationally at the moment, this is a good time to revisit some of Gandhi’s core teachings and see if they can serve as a reminder to us on how to conduct ourselves in today’s world in a way that can create positive change.

“Did you know?!” One of Gandhi’s guiding life principles was the practice of Ahimsa or “non-harming.” And dear yogi’s, if you don’t know by now, ahimsa is the first practice and foremost guiding principle of yoga, according to the sage Patanjali who wrote The Yoga Sutras. It is the first of the Yamas or “things we try not to do.” So dear yogis, please remember as you’re practicing asana (yoga postures) to do like the good doctor and “first and foremost, do no harm.”  

It’s also worth remembering when you’re on your mat Gandhi’s words: "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." Especially if you practice a lot of “power yoga” don’t think that makes you somehow stronger than the next person. Gandhi may have been slight in stature, but his indomitable will was so strong that he was able to create changes that most “muscle men/women” wouldn’t be able to.

“Did you also know?!” Gandhi’s efforts and teaching of non-violent protest eventually led to India being freed, gaining its independence from Britain in 1947. Consider the incredible amount of political and social change that one man – Mahatma Gandhi – created through his practice of ahimsa – non-violence, non-harming. Then, imagine what we can do for ourselves and others if we practice our yoga in such a way that we don’t cause harm. 

We’ve all been injured in various ways – physically, psychically. What’s great about growing older – this is my 60th year on this Earth, so I should know! – is that we learn better and better over time how not to cause harm to ourselves. From there, it ripples out to benefit all beings.

Here are some wise thoughts that Gandhi left for us to consider:

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves."

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.”

I know we often want things outside of ourselves to change before we change, but isn’t nice to consider that the source of our happiness can lie right within our own beings? Isn’t it comforting to know that as we change, the world around us can also change? And might we want to consider facing our greatest challenge, one that could ultimately benefit others – that is our challenge to remake our own selves, rather than spending unnecessary capital in trying to change others? Particularly, telling someone else they’re wrong never seems to work, but rather letting them figure it out for themselves just might! As the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy said: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing oneself.” Might this pattern sound familiar to you?

Gandhi also famously said:

There is no path to Peace. Peace is the Path.

As with most wise teachings, I know we already know this, it’s just that we often forget. I know in this current political environment it’s easy to “go low when they go low” but can’t we use our yoga breathing and meditation practices to maintain some sense of equanimity within ourselves in such situations? In this way, can we meet “their low” with “our high?” Surely isn’t this why – at least in part – we practice yoga and meditation? 

Gandhi also believed:

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always.

In this current global environment, I for one believe Gandhi is right. Evil, violence and hatted may seem to be the stronger forces, but that’s just because they represent our lowest capacity for being and understanding, both individually and collectively. Whether or not you like Presidential candidate Cory Booker’s sunny optimism, I do believe as he does that love and kindness are ultimately the way to go and will lead to the highest form of victory. As Gandhi said:

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

May you be gentle, …
May you do no harm, …
May you Be Peace, …
May Truth and Love win out within you, …
May you shake the word, … for the benefit of All Beings.

Aloha, with Metta,
Paul Keoni

Yoga and the Art of Gaining More Freedom through Love

Tribute in lights, September 11, 2019, view from midtown manhattan

This past month, as sadly we have been doing for the last 18 years, we commemorated the events of 9/11 once again. It’s always been a time for me to pause and take refuge in this teaching from the Buddha:

Hatred is never ended by hatred - but by love alone is hatred healed. This is an eternal rule.
-Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)

So easy of course to say, but so difficult to put into practice. Perhaps that’s why the song All We Need Is Love became popular, as it serves as a constant mantra to help us remember that indeed we need more love in the world to help it heal the many sufferings.

 I’ve been thinking a lot about how to increase my own capacity for being able to meet hatred with more love. I think it has a lot to do with cultivating more compassion, first for my own self, then outwardly towards others. Thich Nhat Hanhs’ words inspired me:

 Even when you see a lot of violence, discrimination, hatred and craving, if you are equipped with understanding and compassion, you don’t suffer.

 We certainly do see a lot of violence, hatred and craving in the world – especially in this current political climate – and yes it makes me mad. But if yoga and meditation and various contemplative teachings can have any value for us, it’s that they can help us to rise above our base needs – food, clothing, shelter – and give us more room to hold more understanding and compassion.

 And this thought gave me pause to consider, as well:

 If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
Jack Kornfield (b.1945), American Buddhist Teacher

 I face a lot of challenges in my own life running Keoni Movement Arts, a nonprofit organization that I founded. Sometimes it’s a very lonely place, as I face multiple decisions and struggle to come up with answers to questions that I am making my best educated guesses on. But through the struggles, I have learned that these moments are great opportunities to have a bit more compassion for myself. What I am doing is not easy. And anyone who has been in my shoes, faces similar challenges and experiences similar feelings. I may feel lonely, but I know that I am not alone and my feelings are universal.

 One of Pema Chodron’s core teachings that I love remembering from time to time is that essentially the discomforts of life, the difficult moments, can be the very ingredients we need in order to grow spiritually and to cultivate more compassion. Ultimately, we are trying to move in the direction of a greater capacity to love, and – no less important – an ability to receive love. One of Jesus’ teachings was this:

 The most sacred places of all on Earth is where an ancient hatred becomes a present love.

 Aaahh, for those of us fortunate enough to create space in our lives to step back and witness past hatreds with less anger, what a place that is to be. It’s from that place that we can witness that people are only doing acts of hate because of feelings of fear and insecurity deep within their core. Perhaps we can’t always reconcile past conflicts with the parties involved, but perhaps we can at least send some love in that direction. As Jesus also said, “forgive them Father, for they do not know what they are doing.”

 Thomas Merton, a 20th Century Theologian and Writer, said it best in imagining what it would be like to look into another’s soul:

 Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in the eyes of the Divine. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. … I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.

What’s the hardest yoga position of all? Perhaps the one where we witness the interconnectedness of all beings, and bow down deeply to each other’s divinity.

 May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you increase your capacity for meeting hatred with love, …
For the benefit of All Beings everywhere.

 Aloha with Metta,
Paul Keoni

Yoga and the Art of Freedom through Service

An image of Lord Hanuman, the Monkey God, on Hinduwebsite.com. This image is a reminder to each of us to open up our own hearts to see what's in it that we most revere, and figure out how we can be of service to it by using the talents we’ve been gifted with.

You have conquered your mind, you move as fast as the wind.
You have conquered the senses,
You overflow with wisdom and mercy.
Son of the Wind, you are Ram's messenger in this world.
Lion among Monkeys! Give me refuge!
- Devotional Chant Prayer to Hanuman, by Krishna Das

To take refuge in something means to find a safe space, and to flee a place that is unsafe. The above prayer chant by the inimitable Krishna Das, so beautifully reminds us that within our very own being, there is something that can help carry us to such a safe place.

Each year around this time, I take refuge in remembering the story of Hanuman. I love sharing this story with my students.

Hanuman, also known at the Monkey God, appears in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. Essentially, in the story he is serving someone named Lord Rama, whose wife Sita gets captured and taken to an island in the middle of the ocean. Hanuman, because of his deep devotion to Rama, takes up the mission to go and rescue Sita and return her to his master. He comes to the edge of the ocean, sees the island way out in the middle of it, and in that moment, he is reminded that he is powerful and strong and capable of doing the impossible. He gathers up his resolve and does a giant “split-leap” over the ocean, lands on the island, rescues Sita, and returns her to Rama.

Hence, as Religious Studies Professor Joshua Greene says:

Hanumanasana is the forward-splits position. The arms are raised overhead in victory. The body is stretched out in all 6 directions. Practicing the pose, we gain victory over our own selves, our ego and our tendencies towards evil.

Essentially, the character of Hanuman reminds us of the powers that lie deep within ourselves that are awakened when we engage in being of service to the humanity and the greater good…

According to Jayaram V in this article on Hinduwebsite.com, Hanuman “is regarded as the Superman, the perfect man ….”

As yoga practitioners, we’re faced with a similarly “impossible task” – one that is no less difficult than the one Hanuman was tasked with doing. Our mission – impossible as it may seem – is to overcome our own selves. We do this by working to purify our own body, mind and heart. We are aided by our remembering – like Hanuman did – that we are indeed powerful human beings, with many talents and huge quantities of resolve that can be put to good use for the betterment of humanity and all sentient beings on this earth.

Jayaram V writes that in the microcosm:

Hanuman represents, the breath. When ego and the senses carry away the mind and body and put them to wrong use, with the help of breath the embodied soul restrains the senses, silences the ego, regains the control of the mind and body and stabilizes them in the contemplation of God.

We can take refuge in our breath, for it will help bring us back to our senses and lead us to doing the right thing.

The right thing in each of our individual cases is to figure out a way to be useful to the world through the talents we’ve been given. So, in a sense, we can also take refuge in our individual life missions. Being engaged in fulfilling them will carry us to freedom.

Jayaram V writes:

… He also symbolizes the story of animal man in us who through the path of devotion and service to God, can purify himself and attain immortality.

Hanuman saw what was in his heart and listened to its call-to-action. We can too. In so doing, we can gain more freedom and move closer to being reunited with the Divine that is in all of us.

May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you listen to what lies deepest in your heart,
May you take refuge in your breath and ride it to freedom,
May you take refuge in your life’s missions and find the strength and resolve to complete them …
… each for the benefit of All Beings everywhere.

Aloha with metta,
Paul Keoni

Yoga and the Art of Being Freer through Fearlessness

Spotting Janie, a yoga student of mine, in a handstand. She’s fearless!

Perhaps there are not many yoga poses more fear-inducing than doing handstands. If you are new to doing them, please do know that you have every right to be afraid.

I wanted to write about fear, because I for one have been stopped by it from time to time in my life. And for this past month, I wanted to see if I could free myself up more by moving closer to things I want by simply asking for those things and taking appropriate steps to try to obtain them. I wanted to see if I could take the approach of “feeling the fear and doing it anyway” as I’ve heard several spiritual teachers suggest over the years. Giving myself the gift of this mind-set has actually freed me up in some ways, and I’ve taken some chances I may not have before.

This month we celebrated the 4th of July, which to Americans symbolizes independence and greater freedom. As yogis/nis, we practice yoga to try to gain greater independence from the “little self” and to feel freer. I think one aspect of the pursuit of both is to meet our fears a little more head-on and to demonstrate to ourselves that we can be fearless, more so than we sometimes give ourselves credit for.

As I was reflecting on what fearlessness means to me, these two thoughts came to my mind:

True Fearlessness sometimes involves saying “yes” before saying “no.”

And, true fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but rather taking incremental actions in the face of fear.

Scary as it may seem to say “yes” before saying “no,” sometimes we can surprise ourselves and (as the slogan goes) “just do it.” We don’t always have to know the outcomes in advance, rather we just have to say “yes” to the moment that is in front of us. We can almost feel it in our gut that saying “yes” is the right thing to do, even if we are feeling fear.

I can remember feeling some fear when my dancer friend Norman asked me back in June 1985 when I was trying to decide if I should move to New York to pursue dance at the age of 26: “Are you going to move here soon? Because if you don’t do it now, you might as well give up on being a dancer.” I don’t remember if I answered “yes” at the moment, but surely I must have said “yes” at some point soon thereafter because 3 months later I landed in NYC ready to pursue a career in the performing arts here. The rest is history. I look back now and am so glad I said “yes” to that moment.

And in my 34 years here in New York, there have been many moments when I experienced fear. I experienced fear when I use to audition regularly, and even as the years went on I don’t think that fear ever went completely away. I experienced fear in my early years as a yoga teacher facing students who were expecting me to help lead them towards nirvana (or at least closer to doing a handstand!). I’ve experienced a lot of fear as I founded and grew my nonprofit organization, Keoni Movement Arts. In those early years, I knew I had a dream to help others through yoga, dance, and gymnastics, but I didn’t quite know how it all worked. I’ve certainly learned a lot over the years since we were founded in 2008, and we have garnered a great amount of impact and success to this date. Still, admittedly, as we continue to grow and I do new things with it for the first time, I do feel fear.

But as I reflect back now at age 60, I can say that I am glad I said “yes” before saying “no” at least on a few important occasions in my life. And I am glad that in pursuit of these major life goals that I proceeded incrementally. Certainly, doing so has helped to mitigate some of the fear I’ve felt.

I am comforted by some of the Buddha’s teachings about fear and fearlessness. Pema Chodron said:

Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the Truth. If you don’t know the nature of fear, you can never be fearless.

So, in other words experiencing fear might be an indication that one is moving closer to the truth. Especially if one is doing a lot of self-examination through therapy or self-observation though meditation, undoubtedly one will be confronted by many things that are quite fear-inducing and down-right scary. But if one can just stay with the fears a bit longer each time, over time one will become more fearless, more free.

Another aspect of being fearless that is oft-overlooked is this sentiment by Pema Chodron’s teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche:

“… Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. …”

In other words, if we can’t have compassion for our fears and know that they are the by-products of our heart which is opening up to the truth more and more, then we can never be truly fearless. Fearlessness is not some “machismo” thing where we act without feelings, but rather it is acting in the face of our feelings – or at least being still with them – rather than running away from them.

I’ve heard several famous actors talk about their fears and how they’ve dealt with them. Hearing them open up about their fears certainly made me feel less lonely in this respect and like I was in good company. Here’s one quote by the SAG Award winning actor Sterling K. Brown (also a fellow Stanford Alum) which he gave in his commencement address to the Class of 2018:

“When I feel fear, as uncomfortable as it may be, I know I’m in the right place. Whether you’re 22, or 42 [or 62], never allow fear to keep you from expanding your definition of self.”

I hope that in some way yoga and meditation can help to normalize your feelings of fear, and help you to expand and know greater definitions of your self.

And I hope that you will take on the challenge of practicing handstands – one incremental, and perhaps fearful, step at time.

May you be happy, …
May you see fear as normal, …
May you move closer to your Truth, …
May you be tender-hearted, …
May you be Fearless, …
May you ask for what you want, …
May you be Freer, … for the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Aloha, with Metta,
Paul Keoni Chun

Yoga and the Art of Balance

The Laughing Gulls and other migratory birds are back for summer in the Rockaways! They bring joy and a wonderful balance to our life in NYC.

Have you ever found yourself procrastinating over a task and given in to continuing to procrastinate? Have you ever felt so caught up in your own problems thato it blinded you from seeing the bigger existential threats to the planet? Have you ever lost your equanimity – your mental composure in the midst of a difficult situation – and longed for it back? Have you ever wished for the feeling of having more balance in your life? If so, then perhaps yoga practices and its accompanying philosophies can help.

The classic yoga text, the Bhagavad Gita, teaches:

You have control over actions alone, never over its fruits. Live not for the fruits of action, nor attach yourself to inaction. Established in Yoga, O Arjuna, perform actions having abandoned attachment and having become balanced in success and failure, for balance of mind is called Yoga.
Krishna speaking Arjuna in Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter 2)

I come back to this theme annually in my yoga classes because I think it’s so important and helpful. Often times, I get caught up in worrying about the results of my actions that it stops me in my tracks and prevents me from taking the first action. Are the results going to be perfect? Are they going to get me what I want? What If I don’t know what I want or even know how to get to what I want right now?These are questions I find my mind asking often. Perhaps they sound familiar to you.

What Krishna is advising Arjuna – and all of us really – is to let go of thinking and worrying too much about what the fruits of our actions will be. Rather he advises that we take the best actions we know how to take in each moment and not to put our attention on what the results might be. In doing so, we can experience balance in our mind. 

Similarly, Buddhist teachings, I read somewhere, says:

Equanimity is letting go of the fruits of our actions. 

I saw an interview with Admiral William McRaven on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He said the number one quality of a Navy Seal is that s/he is “a person who just doesn’t give up.” In a sense, this is what we’re striving for in yoga practice – a “don’t give up attitude.” I have a feeling that the Navy Seals who end up surviving the training can do so because their minds are not overly occupied with what the results may be. As a result, they have more head space to just keep going on and trying their best, moment by moment. This “never give up” attitude might help keep their mind in balance and prevent them from panicking and helping them to remain calm in the midst of very difficult situations.

I also sometimes find myself so concerned about the results to the point that I become paralyzed by procrastination. A NY Times article on procrastination and what you can do about itwas very helpful to me in this regard and provides insights on how we can all maintain more balance. It says that procrastination is not about self-control and is not a laziness problem, but rather it’s really an emotional problem. According to Dr. Fuschia Sirois, “People engage in this irrational cycle of chronic procrastination because of an inability to manage negative moods around a task.” The article gives useful tips for managing procrastination, including practicing self-compassion, cultivating curiosity, and considering just the next step. Similarly, in yoga we strive to be as kind to ourselves in each moment as we can be. We strive to keep our minds open and free, and having a “curious” mind can help us to do that. And we strive to just take the next step, which can help us to stay in the moment and not live in “future” moments.

Another aspect to the art of maintaining balance is to realize that in life on and off the yoga mat there will always be moments of contraction and moments of expansion. The 13th Century Persian poet, Rumi, wrote on this subject of balance these words so eloquently:

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open. 
you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting 
                                        and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as
birdwings.

The art of balance as it relates to yoga asana practice art is that there will be times when one is actively engaging muscles and breath, and there is the time for surrender and letting go – sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in balance. In every asana, some muscles are expanding while the opposing muscles are contracting. Someone, I read somewhere said: Balance exists in the equality of opposition. To find optimal balance in any yoga asana, there has to be equality of contraction and expansion, effort and surrender, yang and yin.

Extending this concept out into our lives, everyone has some things they do really well, and other things that they don’t do so well. Same in yoga asana practice. I think this is a good thing. When we can find a harmonious balance between our successes and failures, we can appreciate and be grateful for our natural gifts when we succeed and also realize compassion for ourselves when we fail. If we never failed, we would not be able to have compassion for others. Think about this deeply – might you not become arrogant if you only knew success while others around you mostly experienced failure? Rumi might say that this kind of arrogance is paralyzing.

Another way we can achieve more balance in our lives is to shift our perspective a little bit. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a 20thCentury Hindu guru, states:

Love says ”'I am everything.” Wisdom says "I am nothing.”. Between the two, my life flows.
I Am That, Chapter 57

As Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj suggests, we can help our mind to stay calm and steady if we constantly shift the focus of our attention to realize that through letting love flow within we come to remember that we are a part of everything that exists. And through letting wisdom flow within us we remember that the individual self is not as important as our own ego would have us believe. He suggests we step back every so often to shift our perspective away from the “small me” to the “big We,” from our false perception of separation to the reality of union. Our life is a balance between Wisdom and Love, Nothingness and Everything, Nisargadatta Maharaj concludes this concept by stating:

Since at any point of time and space I can be both the subject and the object of experience, I express it by saying that I am both, and neither, and beyond both.

So, to be in balance from a yoga perspective means that every so often we need to see ourselves from the perspective of being the subject and the object. We can achieve this by taking time to sit in meditation and just observe our thoughts. Over time, it’s said we’ll experience our non-dual nature, and be in Union with our True Self. 

I know this is a lot to unpack. Yet, I also hope that some of this information can be useful to you. Whether you’re a long-time yogi/ni or relatively new, a regular practitioner or just an occasional one, I hope that your practice can somehow bring you into feelings of balance more often in your life.

May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you live with ease,
May you let go of the fruits of action,
May you be OK with your moments of procrastination,
May you be OK with not being the best,
May you flow between the small picture and the big one, …
… for the benefit of All Beings everywhere. 

Aloha with Metta,
Paul Keoni Chun

Yoga is Community

Gorgeous sunset in Arverne, NY, on Memorial Day -- a perfect way to remember those who served the greater community with their lives.

For whatever reasons you are practicing yoga, try to remember also that you are one of many who are seeking further enlightenment. You are part of a much bigger community – a community that is trying to do right not just for each individual but for the entire community as well. Therefore, your practice is not entirely just your own, or of your own making. And your efforts are undertaken with the hope that both you as an individual and the beings all around you on the planet will benefit.

The venerable Thich Nhat Hanh believes:

The next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community; a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the Earth.

With the earth in peril due to the ignorance of many, it’s so important that we as yoga practitioners live mindfully, and with greater awareness. Perhaps this quote from the website whenonepercent.org can give you hope: 

When just one percent of a community spends time in prayer and meditation, the whole community moves toward peace. Scientific studies record as much as an 80% decrease in violence within that community. With so much uncertainty in the world, One % of us committing to a daily meditation practice can make a significant difference.

I have no idea of whether this statistic regarding reduction in violence is in fact true. But one thing I have no doubt about is that when I/we practice meditation as individuals for sure any violent tendencies within ourselves are at least mitigated and held at bay, if not eliminated entirely. And that helps everyone, because we are all connected. As the Dalai Lama said:

My call for a spiritual revolution is not a call for a religious revolution, nor for a way of life that is otherworldly - still less to something magical or mysterious. It is a call for a radical reorientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self, a call to turn toward the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others' interests alongside our own.

Some come to yoga and meditation for escape, and some even come in hopes of experiencing ‘otherworldly’ experiences. I am of the belief that we should all come to yoga so that we can experience the actual day-to-day realities of life more fully – with clearer and wider eyes – and to truly work to see our connections to the whole of sentient beings with fuller awareness. Consider George Bernard Shaw’s words:

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.  I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.

Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me.  It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

What part will you play in helping the planet and all it’s inhabitants? As a yoga and meditation practitioner, know that you have a bigger role and responsibility than you may be aware of. You also have more power than you may realize.

May you be part of the next Buddha, …
May you be part of the one percent, …
May you let go of preoccupation with the self, …
May your candle burn brightly for future generations, …
May you deepen your connection to the greater community, …
… for the benefit of All beings.

Aloha with Metta,
Paul Keoni