This is not a yoga blog. This is a inspiration blog, though, and since I am a yogini, it follows that I find artistic inspiration through my practice. (Since I am also an attorney, I felt the need to write a little disclaimer of sorts to preface this post.)Do you ever have one of those moments where something clicks-- a true "a-ha" moment? I know these are probably quite normal, but I am absolutely fascinated by them. How could I be going through my life, bobbing through the ebbs and flows of the tides, tied to the moon, without knowing something that seems so obvious once it clicks?! I had such a moment regarding Karma. Many Westerners are familiar with the law of cause and effect, though many view Karma as something that happens to us rather than something that we actively participate in every day. (True, there is the global aspect of karma that results from the collective actions of society, but even then we do play a role in the cycle. I'm not talking about collective karma here.) My moment of realization came while I was reading about karma in a favorite yoga book, Jivamukti Yoga by Sharon Gannon and David Life. Though I have read this book through many times as well as other texts on Karma, it never ever occurred to me that the actions, deeds and thoughts of one individual affect the Karma of the object of that thought, deed or action. My how this resonates with me. It takes the selfishness out of Karma; instead of thinking "I will do good to make good things happen to me," karma teaches us to shift the thoughts to "do good to relieve suffering in others." This is the greatest inspiration I know.
Photo of Shiva by Finton Boyle.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Much LOVE & Gratitude for reading! I'd love to hear what *you* think. {p.s. I'm now moderating all comments because we have had too many spammers dropping porn-bombs on us. booooo!}