Inner peace comes from acceptance of what is. The bills may be looming and the miney barely trickling in, but those are simply facts, parameters of your situation. Make a plan to address them, commit to it, and move on.
Two monks are walking, and come across a destroyed wagon. The rider is beaten and bloody, and warns them of a pack of bandits in the area.
After bandaging the man, they continue on.
The younger monk says "What if the bandits come upon us?"
The elder monks replied "Surely our martial training will keep us safe" and kept walking.
The next day the younger monk asks "What if the bandits have guns and swords?"
The elder monk says "Surely our sharp minds will prevail" and kept walking.
The third day the young monk asks "What if there are so many bandits they overwhelm us?"
The elder responds "Then we shall meet our end with grace."
They arrived at the monastery that evening, and met with the high monk there.
He asked "Three days of travel, tell me what did you see?"
The younger monk says "We saw a beaten man who warned us of bandits.
I spent the whole trip with my eyes and ears strained, listening for them."
The older monk says "We walked through the Old Forest and I enjoyed the vibrant life there. We passed the Winding River, and I meditated on the fish that fight the current. We walked around the Blue Mountain and I beheld the splendors of creation."
The high monk smiles and says to the younger monk "A bandit steals gold and food. Who then stole the forest, the river and the mountain from you?"
While the ancient texts are valuable and interesting for some, they can often be interpreted in a way that serve more to confuse and confound rather then be of any practical use. Going about the activities of ones daily life is spiritual practice. Performing asana or studying ancient texts is only so good as it helps us in the effort of living. Reality is spirituality.
An authentic practice of Hatha Yoga takes place only in the context of ones life. The process of doing an asana is indicative of the process by which we live. In a pose, there is an amount of working the body that, with the breath, is appropriate in the given moment. The asana, and its benefit, will come about gradually without any injury or negative repercussion. If one is doing more then enough, the body will strain, the mind will tense, and the desired result is actually impeded. If one is doing less then enough, little or no action takes place. The same is true in Life. There is an amount of doing: jobs, apartments, relationships, all the things we do to make Life what we want it to be. There is also an amount of not doing, of just leaving it alone and not trying to make it any different then it already is. When we can find the balance between doing and not doing, Life is progressing and we are able to enjoy the endeavor. Some days you do more, some days you do less. It all depends on how you are feeling and what is happening in your life situation. “Advanced” practice is having the awareness to determine when enough is enough.I cannot agree more - in fact, I was having a conversation online with members of my World of Warcraft guild about the recent success I had just yesterday teaching at the local Lululemon.
