Greetings and blessings.
May this segment find you happy and healthy.
May you be overwhelmed with abundance of peace.
If you take a moment to find your comfortable seat,
Even if your eyes are closed,
Just check
in.
We want our minds to be alert,
To be receptive and open,
Ready to listen.
Let's begin just by listening to the sound of our breath together.
Let's take a deep breath in and a long relaxing breath out.
Listen to your body let go.
Breathing in new life,
Health and happiness and breathing out anything holding you back,
Letting go of any judgments,
Just breathing in presence and gratitude and breathing out
any distractions,
Any tension.
Let's settle in and hear what our prophet has to say on beauty.
And a poet said,
Speak to us of beauty.
And he answered,
Where shall you seek beauty?
And how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?
The aggrieved and the injured say,
Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother,
Half shy of her own glory,
She walks among us.
And the passionate say,
Nay,
Beauty is a thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest,
She shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us.
The tired and the weary say,
Beauty is of soft whisperings.
She speaks in our spirit.
Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow.
But the restless say,
We have heard her shouting among the mountains and with her cries came
the sound of hoofs and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions.
At night,
The watchmen of the city say,
Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east.
And at noontide,
The toilers and the wayfarers say,
We have seen her leaning over the earth
from the windows of the sunset.
In winter,
Say the snowbound,
She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills.
And in the summer heat,
The reapers say,
We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves.
And we saw a drift of snow in her hair.
All these things have you said of beauty.
Yet in truth,
You spoke not of her,
But of needs unsatisfied.
And beauty is not a need,
But an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart inflamed
and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you
see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark,
Nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather
a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels forever in flight.
People of Orpheles,
Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you,
You are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
So many lessons are repeated,
Left unlearned,
Because we look away from the reflection.
We're thirsting and seeking those that are unrealized in our minds.
The image we can see though our eyes are closed,
The song we can hear when our ears are shut
is that truth from within,
This beauty,
This happiness,
This source of love,
Yet somehow
in our minds we perceive beauty without.
As the prophet said,
These needs unsatisfied.
So we need not seek outside the look without,
To be on the hedonic treadmill as it were,
Seeking pleasure,
Adapting,
Subsiding,
Seeking more pleasure,
Adapting,
Subsiding,
And on
and on it goes on this vicious treadmill.
We can step off.
And so here's the challenge.
You step onto your yoga mat the next time you're in the studio.
You're standing with purpose and standing in mountain pose to dasana.
If you cannot see the beauty of your alignment in your reflection,
Close your eyes and feel
the beauty.
If you cannot feel the beauty of alignment,
Shut your ears and hear the song.
The beauty is the harmony of mind,
Body,
And spirit playing in unison.
Our thoughts,
Our words,
Deeds aligned with our purest intention,
Allowing the source
of our love,
Our creativity,
That beauty from within to shine on all those around.
So the next time you find yourself in mountain pose,
Close your eyes,
Let go of all distractions.
If you can withdraw from all your senses,
Feel,
Hear,
Believe in the beauty within and
know in your heart of hearts,
In your soul,
This moment is more than enough.
You are more than enough,
Beautiful,
Wise,
Strong,
Deserving of love because you are
a manifestation of love.
So if you can allow yourself a simple smile,
A moment for gratitude,
I'm sending you all
my love and all of my gratitude,
Honoring the beauty,
The love within namaste.
