Hey there,
My name is Lisa and welcome to Dharma Talks with Lisa.
So I'm super excited about this new offering that I am giving.
For those of you who are quite confused to what a Dharma Talk is,
We first have to speak about Dharma.
And Dharma is this path,
This calling within your life,
Something you want to do or how you wish to truly live.
And when it comes to Dharma Talks,
That's what I ate for most of my yoga and meditation practices.
I would go to yoga studios in the city or I would go to YouTube videos where people would just sit and meditate upon the wisdom of a teacher or a leader.
Same thing,
It's kind of like going to church or going to a concert and you sit and you pick up any wisdom of someone else's perspective.
And they're always on the themes of life,
The themes of yoga or a theme in a spiritual practice in a spiritual sense.
So for this Dharma Talk,
I really want to focus it in on transformation.
This is a theme that I've been working on a lot.
And this theme is meant to inspire you to kind of take your practice off the mat or the meditation cushion and start to live your spiritual lifestyle,
Whatever that is for you and whatever that truly means.
But start to live authentically,
Live your Dharma,
Whatever that is for you today.
The overall theme of transformation has been abundant in yoga,
In yoga philosophy and in meditation.
And I'm not just talking about the external transformation or the mental transformation.
I'm talking about this soul-like transformation.
I'm talking about this coming back to home,
Wherever that is,
To your own inner nirvana type transformation,
Finding true alignment in yourself.
And though it's good for us,
We resist it.
We resist transformation unless it's just this beautiful thing,
Right?
If it's babies,
It's a little bit easier.
But maybe sometimes when new beings come in,
We think we can hold on to certain aspects of our past.
It's like,
Nope,
No more sleeping in,
No more taking days off when you're sick,
Because even if you can take a day off from work,
If you have a baby or a kid,
It's like there are no days off.
So those aspects,
If you resist it,
It just becomes so much harder,
Right?
So when we talk about death and birth and transformation,
I think a lot about the god Shiva,
The destroyer in yoga philosophy,
Who is oh so good at honoring the energy of transformation,
Whether it's death or birth.
Shiva just embraces it all.
I feel truly that in Hinduism,
These themes come up for us and for me as someone who is just observing and then observing these energies within myself and in my own life,
That the principles of not resisting transformation,
Of going with it,
Of softening to it,
Softening to the energy of transformation,
Is quite an important practice for us to learn as human beings.
If we take a moment to personally reflect on the energy of transformation happening in our own life,
Because it can happen every day,
I'm asking you,
Instead of running,
Because sometimes we run towards transformation if it feels really good,
It's like,
Oh,
I want to move to that new place or I want that new job,
Especially when it comes to manifestation,
It's like I want,
I need the goals.
But what about the stuff that we're also maybe avoiding?
Because again,
In yoga,
The principles are not to run to something and avoid another,
But to simply allow yourself to sit in the experience of your journey and what the universe is offering you.
And that's frustrating.
Guys,
That is frustrating.
But I also think it's necessary.
It's a necessary practice to sit in the change,
In the transformation,
Maybe even in a little bit of that chaos of the unknown,
And allow yourself to really be present with the experience.
And you may be thinking to yourself,
How,
How am I going to be present with an experience that may feel so uncomfortable?
I think that's how we evolve and we grow.
If we are present with the experience of the discomfort,
If we allow ourselves to take care of ourselves,
To nurture ourselves in the moments of discomfort,
If we allow ourselves to breathe with ourselves,
To share our experiences,
We may gain wisdom.
We may find we're not alone.
We may find that we need something that we didn't realize we needed before.
We may become stronger.
We are the lotus flowers,
My friends.
We are lotuses.
We emerge from sometimes chaos,
Darkness,
Muck,
And then we transform.
We transform into the lotus,
The beautiful being that we admire,
That on the surface of the water looks so gorgeous,
But then underneath,
It had to go through all these things to come to that surface,
To come to that space.
We try so hard to hold on to things that feel good,
That are fathomable,
Instead of leaning on into things that may be unfathomable,
To understand that life can be chaotic and completely unfathomable,
And that's okay.
What can be unhealthy is if we get dragged by the inevitable,
Instead of going with it.
By allowing yourself the space and time to go with the flow of the current,
To morph,
To transform,
We are allowing ourselves to really experience not only our individual life,
But we are allowing ourselves to experience humanity's journey as a whole.
What does that mean?
That's pretty big.
We are allowing ourselves to experience the stories of our ancestors.
We are allowing ourselves to experience other people's stories.
We are allowing ourselves to experience .
.
.
A great example is the pandemic.
When we go with it,
When we don't resist,
When we connect with others,
When we share experiences,
When we heal,
When we embrace the experience,
Things get born.
It's not necessarily easy.
It's not a beautiful practice.
It can be quite messy.
It's not running down the nose practice.
Those are sometimes the most enriching practices for ourselves.
Those are sometimes the practices that allow us to look back when we're 100 years old or 80 years old and say,
That was a time,
But my gosh,
Because of that time,
X,
Y,
And Z were my blessings.
So now let's dive on into Dharma talk questions for you to meditate on and for you to take with you.
What blessings am I gaining from these moments of transformation?
What are the blessings that I can see in these moments of transformation?
What are the blessings that I may not be able to see that I will keep my eye open for in the future?
How can I manifest and cultivate more compassion for myself during this time of transformation?
What fears and doubts am I holding onto that are stopping me from fully embracing the potential of this moment?
Because this moment of transformation may also be an opportunity.
What necessary shedding is happening during this moment of transformation?
We can even visualize that.
What are we like a snake shedding its skin or we have a hairy cat and in the springtime it sheds all the unnecessary fur.
We too shed hair that no longer has lived its cycle and life goes on.
So what unnecessary shedding is happening?
So I will leave you with those questions to truly meditate on,
To journal on.
I truly hope this serves you.
I will be back next week with same Dharma talks.
And if there is anything that inspires you,
Always feel free to let me know.
I thank you so much for joining me.
Have an amazing rest of your 24 hour period.
So many blessings to you.
