“The present moment is sometimes unacceptable, unpleasant or awful. “Accept — then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of NOW…
“…They deny the need to change by making up all sorts of ideas about why their own [structures] are better than others. This has always been the Sufi critique of religious or cultural institutions: These institutions are human creations, intended to serve human development and happiness. The real religion behind all religions, according to the…
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” ~ Carl Rogers As we teachers teach a Bikram Yoga class we see who is able to focus on themselves in the mirror and who isn’t. When necessary we will subtly, continually remind everyone to focus on themselves…
“Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow — it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a…
“People who have the most to teach us are often the ones who reflect back to us the limits to our own capacity to love, those who consciously or unconsciously challenge our fearful position.” ~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love Did you get that, my friend? It’s those who get under our skin that are…
“Resistance is Hell, for it places man in a ‘state of torment.’” ~ Florence Scovel Shinn Are you feeling tormented, my friend? Well, I suppose there can be varying degrees of torment as at some level we’re all resisting something. What might you be resisting? I have learned that hiding behind that thing I’m resisting…
“The pain you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the level of emotion, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the…
“We cannot change, we cannot move away from what we are, until we thoroughly accept what we are. Then change seems to come about almost unnoticed.” ~ Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person Oh, my friend, we’re so good at noticing everything that’s not right. We have this ache and pain…so-and-so always behaves that way…we…
If you’re reading this article you probably do Bikram Yoga regularly or at least have done it a few times. You know the grueling routine of the class. You’ve experienced the adversity of the heat and the classroom setting. You’ve stared into the cosmic mirror and had to face yourself, for better or worse, for…