I confess upfront; this blog is rooted in a memory-based in my assumption about how I was perceived.

A slippery slope, indeed!

During the last few years at Kripalu, I believed I was seen by the new administration and my new boss as being hardcore, a Teacher of The Heavy, that my tendency was to teach dense and scary and internal stuff, aiming to make people cry.  

Yes, I love the deeper work.

Yes, I have been long branded a deep-diver.

Yes, people have been known to shed a tear or two in processing my programs.

And damn, friends, I am funny.

If you know me, you know I have the capacity to soften and lighten and relax the air in a group.

We know that.

Slightly offended, I did my best to hold ground and ignore my suspicions, in a mature, avoidant fashion.

It was an era in my department of—let’s not get too heavy for our guests, GOD FORBID—or so I thought.

I felt fussy and righteous about my commitment to The Deep.

During this epoch, my boss asked me to create a workshop on joy.

Joy.

JOY?

It seemed—God forgive me—frivolous.

What the heck is joy, anyway?

Before the pandemic?

That was hard enough.

Now?

Who can imagine?

Truly, I am more suited up to live into, to teach the hurt, the angst, the Grit of Life.

Give me a good crisis.

Nevertheless, I obliged my boss’ request, with some silent snickering.  I created a seasonal program, Leaning Toward Joy, A Summer Primer.

Or, An Autumn Primer.

And, A Spring Primer.

No, I did not prime us to enjoy winter.

I did not.

Simply said, I believed that angst was more “spiritual” than joy.  

Little did I understand their interwoven connection.

You all taught me that.  I learned so much from you guys, our guests.

Opening the topic, hearing your ideas……listening to our memories of joy, of summer joy…….

Here’s what I discovered about joy with you, our Kripalu guests, pre-pandemic.  

• Our capacity to feel joy is contingent upon our willingness to feel grief, loss, transition, & pain.
• The practice of being present with whatever is happening truly is the doorway to joy.
• We get it all, all the feelings.
• Deny the hard stuff?  Joy slips further away.
• Commit to being present?  Joy offers herself to us.

Other discoveries—Joy is:

• Body-centered
• Fluid
• Spontaneous
• Contagious   
• Our opening to the flow state 
• Flushes though, comes and goes
• Available sometimes when a physical limit is reached
• Alive in nature
• Will live in deep body memory

Listening to people’s summer joyful memories was a teary, touching thing—the preciousness of those shared experiences moved me deeply.  I could no longer feel huffy about “being given a topic.” The topic of joy, filtered through your insights and your memories, opened my heart.

~~~

For you, I ask:

What memory do you have of summer joy?  Perhaps it was decades ago, perhaps minutes ago.  Consider.  Write it out.  Send it out. To me, to somebody.  Share it.  Remember it.  Live into it.

For you, I ask:

What were the circumstances that you created that helped the joy to come forth?

What did you do then—to allow yourself to be available to the flow state, to the fluidity of joy?

For you, I ask:

What can this summer be for you?  What do you choose?

In this time of so much loss, how can you create the circumstances in which you are available to joy?

~~~

Here is Rumi on joy:

No one knows what makes
the soul wake up so happy.
Maybe a dawn breeze has
blown the veil from the face of God.
A thousand new moons appear.
Roses open laughing.
The body turns entirely spirit. 
Leaves become branches in this wind. 
Why is it now so easy to surrender,
even for those already surrendered?
There is no answer to any of this.
No one knows the source of joy.
A poet breathes into a reed flute,
and the tip of every hair makes music. 
~~ Rumi

~~~

And because my psychic told me I must listen to music daily, I’ve been dancing around the house to this oldie, but, oh, so goodie.  If you choose, here is Joy to the World by Three Dog Night:

This is a memory from many yesterdays-ago.  

I was living in an ashram, Our Ashram, Our Kripalu.  

Every morning this summer, I wake early, a slice in time before the dawn.

I sleep with my bathing suit on, to ease, to quicken my waking,

so eager am I for this new day.  

Perhaps this is true?  

Is that memory accurate?  

Do accuracy and memory need to meet?

Sleeping in clothes during girl scout camp was a sound strategy, both keeping me warm and making entry into the new day quicker—not a moment to be wasted, in so rich and fantastic a world.

Parallels between my beloved girl scout camp and my beloved ashram abound!

Back to my memory:

Bathing suit on, now shorts and sweatshirt, dirty, bent-back sneakers, I hurry downstairs, open the heavy door, and breathe in the majesty, the never-ending glory of our Kripalu view.  With dawn just breaking, I scurry, half-jogging, down the hill, skipping, running, racing with myself, racing against myself, racing against the dawn, to arrive at the water’s edge. 

Crossing over the little road, onto the path, even more excited now for the water’s approach.

Almost sprinting, internal leaping, making my way.

And there, the lake!

The lake.

Our lake.

Today a thick, heavy mist covers the water, 

Turning pink now with the dawn.

It is glorious—

Pink water!

I wade into it, this magic water, 

Descending into, 

Enveloped into, become one with the pink mist.  

The water, warmer than the air, comforts me, welcomes me.

I release myself into its arms, covered now in pink mist.   

Water, sky, legs, arms—all pink.

Ecstatic, I swim outward, into the arms of the lake.  

Blissed out, I marvel at the oneness, the pink-wholeness of the moment.

It is delicious, seductive, glorious a swim.

Swimming in pink, one with all.  

Blissed out and stronger than now, oh, so much stronger, twenty-five-years-younger-stronger, I swim on.

Stroke, stroke, stroke.

Bliss.

Until… I realize after a time, with a quiet, creeping awareness in my belly, that I feel turned around.

I feel directionally unclear.

I stop swimming, poke my head out of the water, and attempt to orient myself.

Am I heading toward the Tanglewood beach, to my left?

Or am I facing the center of the lake?

Perhaps I am swimming to my right?

I realize, with a pang in my belly, I do not know.

I do not know where I am in relationship to the shoreline.

My breath catches.

I cannot see the tree-line, which daily serves as my most reliable compass.

Not today.

Today there is no compass.

I feel a numbing fear creep and worm its way into my belly.

I do not know the direction.

I do not know my way back to shore.

Frantically I turned to the right, sure this is the way.

Stroke, stroke, stroke.

Head up, to assess.

No clue.

No, this way, I think, adjusting.

Stroke, stroke, stroke,

Head up, to assess.

Less of a clue.

I am not clear how long I do not know the way.

I pride myself on knowing the way.

I am not clear how I manage to somehow realign.

I pride myself on being able to realign.

Not this morning.

Time passes.

This morning, I am lost, lost in Lake Mahkeenac.

The voice of my existential terror increases its volume:

I cannot find my way back.

When will they notice I am gone?

How will they ever find my body?

I think of my community, my ashram family, women and men, 

Committed to serving, to growing, to learning.  

I love us so much.  

I am them, finally, at home.  

I do not want them to be gone from me.  

I do not want to lose them.  

The thought of it brings a surge of energy into my heart.

Is it twenty minutes?

Is it twelve minutes?

In  that moment, that moment of thinking and feeling my community,  I do not know how, even in the moment, I do not know how—but there, the tree-line emerges, creeping into vision from behind the dense fog, no longer pink, no longer so seductive.

A rush of energy surges through me.

Now! I recognize the shore-line, I swim with whatever strength I have not fearfully frittered away.

Arms tired, legs dragging, I push on toward the now-gloriously revealing-itself-shore-line.

The rocky bottom finally emerges beneath my feet—never so happy to have my soles been to meet these little rocks.

Never so relieved have I been to have my soul return to the soul group up the hill,

The soul group that was My Ashram.

That was My Kripalu.

That always will be My Ashram.

That always will be

My Kripalu.

~~~
I did not die that day.

I did not drown.

I got born.

And I continue to get born, through the light and the love of the Kripalu community.

The community, the connection, the bonds developed between us in the ashram literally created the work that changed our lives and the lives of you, our guests, over the decades.  

The Kripalu ashram will always been the rooted earth of the great Kripalu Experiment, in whatever form it inhabits.

~~~

To belong somewhere.

To be on somebody’s roster, 

Somebody,

Somewhere.

Desmund Tutu tells us:

My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.
We belong in a bundle of life.
A person is a person through other persons.

This is so reminiscent of Swami Kripalu teaching about Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the whole world is one family, such a relevant reminder now.

Here is a short and lovely clip of Bishop Tutu:    

 

Hello to us, all.

This week, with so many externals wildly and unpredictably unfolding, I find myself thinking about practice.

In this moment which seems to be ever-and-always-changing, our fluid pandemic reality, practice can offer us consistency, access to that which does not change.

I am convinced we Westerners just do not grok the essence of practice:

• Practice as an ongoing, non-judgmental experiment.
• Practice as entry into a field of exploration.
• Practice as a set of strategies to return to, no matter what we are feeling.
• Practice as consistency.
• Practice as curiosity.
• Practice as riverbanks.

The Buddhists say, 

Fall down 100 times?

Get up 101.

That is it.

Just, keep going.

In Twelve Step we say, 

Keep coming back.

Keep coming back

To the breath,

To the tether,

To weekly yoga,

To a news boycott,

To whatever you choose

To be the riverbanks

With which

You are

Gifting

Yourself.

No matter how many times

You find yourself

Not practicing,

Just come back.

~~~

Not practicing

Is 

An essential element

Of practice!

That is where

The growth happens—

That is where

The muscle of return

Is strengthened.

That is where

We bless ourselves

And choose 

For our healing, growth,

And benefit.

~~~

Let us consider the kinds of practice we might talk about:

Yoga?  Of course.

Meditation?  Yes.

Movement.  Certainly.

Morning prayer.

Freedom from sugar.

Commitment to less intake of news.

Positive thinking.

Consistency of schedule for bedtime.

Non-doing?  Sitting on the porch?  Listening to the birdies?

Practice as non-doing, 

Not as more to do, 

But as spaciousness, 

As air,

As emptiness.

On and on and forever on.

Spiritual practice does not have to be something we do not enough of,

Something hard and difficult

Or effortful,

Something externally imposed upon you.

It can be an internal decision to bring a bit more stability to your world.

Where in your life do you choose to bring more stability?

Which pillar of self-care is the shakiest for you now?

Is it:

Nutrition?

Movement?  (Let us not even call it exercise.)

Stress reduction?

Sleep?

Connection?  With Self?  With others?  With Grace?

Within your most rocky arena, imagine a few steps you can regularly take,

To bring stability.

Sleep?

I am committed to 10:30, lights out.

Period.  Conversation over.

No matter how my mind screams at me, most insistently:

I AM NOT TIRED.

I believe my body probably is.

Even if I lay there wide awake,

The gift of the riverbank of 10:30

Feels better, more positive,

Kinder

Then ongoing Netflix episodes that seduce me into the night,

Remote control bungyed to my hand.

~~~

The gift of practice lies
I do believe
In the cultivation
Of lovingkindness
For ourselves.

Yes, of course,
We benefit from
The “form” of practice.

Yet, cultivating
Self-compassion
And the 
Right use of will
Is truly the gift,

Developing deeper relationship
With ourselves,
Is the boon.

As Rumi says,

Whether you have broken your vow
One-hundred times,
Come,
The door
Is 
Round
And 
Open.

~~~

Here is a link to an audio teaching/meditation I recorded for us, about two practices that have sustained me this week, The Practice of Relaxing into the Moment, and the Practice of Looking for the Beauty.  Please enjoy, as I share with you that which pretty much carried me through the upheaval of this week.

http://coacharuni.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Seekonk-Rd-9.m4a

And here is another gift, a song that brought me great comfort this week.  I am delighted to share it with you.  The singer is Emily Donato of NYC— you can find out more about her at her site, www.emilydonato.com.

Emily’s mastery is an example of the result of focused practice and we are blessed with the outcome.  It is also an extraordinary example of finding beauty in the moment.  Please relax and enjoy Emily’s gift to us.

https://bit.ly/Emilysong

Dear Friends, 

What are you taking away from this blog?  Is there any gift of practice you want to offer yourself?  Or something you already do that is sustaining you?

One step at a time—that is all life is asking of us.

May we be healthy.
May we be happy.
May we ride the waves
Of our lives.
May we live in peace
No matter
What we
Are
Given.

All blessings, Aruni

~~~

Announcements

Our Share Circles are evolving into Sharing and Teaching Circles.  Through the art of mindful communication, we are sharing our world views and looking to core teachings for practice, to get us through, to offer us support in living.  Please consider joining us.  No registration is needed; donation is appreciated.  https://www.paypal.me/CoachAruni

This week our circles will be:

• Tuesday, June 16, @ 2:00 http://coacharuni.com/tuesdaycircles/
• Thursday, June 18, @ 2:00 http://coacharuni.com/thursdaycircles/

Pandemic Day # 9,763.  

But who is counting?

In my world, these pandemic days are incredibly and fascinatingly diverse.  

For me, each is its own individual oddity.

Some days I find myself weepy and soppy, throughout, without any obvious trigger but, well, every single thing.     

The next day I find myself engaged, maybe almost leaning toward the positive.  

Some days are thoroughly heartbreakingly emptied.

Some fill with easy possibility.

Some nights I sleep wrapped in an almost settled relaxation.

Other nights, like Wednesday, my total cumulative sleep was 12 minutes, five seconds.

It was a fevered, busy, aggravated series of hours in which to spend with myself.

Suffice to say, I did NOT enjoy my own company.

Some days I find myself having a quiet kind of fun, amusing self-contained fun, having a vacation at the CVS drive-through window, loving and blessing the masked man behind the thick glass window, keeping me safe and supplying me with my every CVS need.

Some days I cannot find an inch of comfort for myself in which to rest.

Extremes.

Waves.

Shifts.

All true.

All inevitable.

All part of the package

Of me.

In reading Frank Ostaseski’s book, The Five Invitations—Discovering What Death Can Teach Us about Living Fully, I am fully taken and touched and surprised, paragraph after paragraph.

His Zen perspective defines hope as an “orientation of the heart.”

My heart has felt broken.

Hope has been elusive, vague, a function of my fear, a grasping toward a conclusion I determine.

A way out of the moment.

An exit.

Frank reframes it.  He talks about “mature hope” as “an energizing quality that helps us to remain open to the possibility that while life may not turn out the way we first thought, opportunities we never imagined might also arise.”

Hope as a way into the moment, as it is!

Hope as a doorway back to the flow state.

Hope as a release of my picture of reality.

Hope as humility, as surrender,

As right-sized relaxation.

Like on the yoga mat.

The yoga mat 

Of life.

Frank Ostaseski continues to remind me

To practice.

I want to practice what I know to be true,

That there is nowhere to be but here,

Right here.

That whatever is happening here 

In the fluidity of my moment,

Is coming

And

Is going.

~~~

I have found solace this week, too, with Rumi, the ecstatic poet.  Here he is:

Never lose hope
When life
Sends you away.
If you’re abandoned
If you’re left hopeless
Tomorrow for sure
You’ll be called again.
If the door is shut
Right in your face
Keep waiting with patience.
Don’t leave right away.
Seeing your patience,
Your love will soon
Summon you with Grace,
Raise you like a champion.

~~~
Raise you like a champion.

I love that.

I need that.

I have been feeling so

Un-championed.

Can I allow life as it is to lift me up?

Can I allow the circumstances exactly as they are to be the doorway back to ease?

Can I allow myself to let go of what I think should be happening?

A pandemic?

It’s happening.

Hideous and ignorant Incompetency?

It’s real.

Terrifying economic upheaval?

Yep.

Racial and social inequality?

You betcha.

Profound heartbreaking loss?

Absolutely.

Can I just let it be as it is?

As I do,

It is just

Simply

Easier. 

When I can,

I practice

So imperfectly.

When I can’t,

I choose

To come back.

To 

Gentle

Kindness.

My practice?

To create

The circumstances

In which

I 

Might

Be

Raised up

Like a champion.

~~~

It’s a good moment for gentle kindness.  Here’s our own Berkshire Guy, J.T., with his particular brand of a gentle, kind reminder.  Breathe, relax, and enjoy.