June posts at Five Tattvas

I received a request to highlight posts I am making at Five Tattvas here. Below is a digest for the June posts so I can share some of those thoughts here.

In an earlier post announcing my work with Five Tattvas, I described my first post, but I’ll re-summarize here. “I’m not there yet” focuses on lengthening the space between stimulus and reaction. Though the title could be read differently, I am thinking of that “there” space as less of a specific goal to achieve and more as a process to appreciate. Part of this process is noting the gains I have made thus far in my efforts to be less reactive.

Here’s an excerpt:

But the man who is self-controlled,
who meets the objects of the senses
With neither craving nor aversion,
Will attain serenity at last.
                      – Bhagavad Gita 2.64

I like this passage from the Gita. It’s aspirational in a way that seems out of my grasp, yet reminds me, at the same time, to not be so grasping. Even to “like” it, is to fall into the very response that it warns against: craving (raga) and aversion (dvesha). Just envisioning what this would be like is difficult for me. What would it mean to meet each sense object, each next thing, each past thing, with equanimity?

I’m not there yet.

Read the full post here.

My second post “Strength in the Broken Places” focused on working with an injury, especially one incurred during yoga practice. I got quite a good response on that one, which I was surprised about as it was such a personal story of my own journey through injury. Goes to show you never know what experience may connect with, and help, others.

Here’s an excerpt:

Five Tattvas

Just before I started my year of no, I committed to joining a great group of yogis in writing for a new online project, Five Tattvas. As described on the site:

Five Tattvas recognizes the need for what we call embodied philosophical living.  Embodied philosophy is not philosophy of the intellect alone, but is an integrated, non-dualistic living wisdom. It is a decision to live with mindfulness, insight, attention and intention – one day at a time. Drawing on the perennial wisdom of the wider yoga and wisdom traditions – largely from the East – we seek to prescribe practices, activities, and modes of living that actualize liberating patterns of thought and behavior. These new patterns break us out of the habits that continuously cause us pain and suffering and reorient our lives in empowering ways.

I will be one of the yogis writing for the Five Tattvas “Embodied Philosophy” blog weekly. My first post is already up! It’s titled “I’m not there yet” and it focuses on lengthening the space between stimulus and reaction, something I’ve touched on here at calmstrength before (see “Brilliant Honesty”). Here’s an excerpt:

But the man who is self-controlled,
who meets the objects of the senses
With neither craving nor aversion,
Will attain serenity at last.
                      – Bhagavad Gita 2.64

I like this passage from the Gita. It’s aspirational in a way that seems out of my grasp, yet reminds me, at the same time, to not be so grasping. Even to “like” it, is to fall into the very response that it warns against: craving (raga) and aversion (dvesha). Just envisioning what this would be like is difficult for me. What would it mean to meet each sense object, each next thing, each past thing, with equanimity?

I’m not there yet.

Please head over to Five Tattvas to see the rest of my post and the other pieces by my co-bloggers. I’m excited about this new project, though concerned about blogging twice (!) a week. But since I’ll be saying no to so much else this year, perhaps it’ll all work itself out…. (If I think it will, it will…right?)

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