Balance in your life, as far as I know it as a teacher, comes with the steps to life-freedom, which is the philosophy of Yoga, together with practice, and values for your life . . . but, there have been so many wise teachers, with much wisdom to share with us and many of us are seeking balance in our lives. It’s an approach to living that can go a long way in a year.
For 2018 I wanted to write about a lasting approach to getting balance. I couldn’t get to interview the people I would have liked to for this article, and so this is a roundup of what I think they would have answered to my question “How do you get Balance?” based on their famous quotations.
Your Meditation is your medication … once it has worked for you, you throw away the medication, throw away the Meditation and get a new one. Osho.
If you can’t let it go, let it in. Dainin Katagiri
You can’t get there from here, and besides there is no place to go. Sheldon Kopp
Nothing is missing, Zen Master Lin-Chi ….. the ordinary person probably does already live with zen values.
Appreciate happiness: happiness seems like such a small thing when you have it, but when it’s gone you realise how big it really is. Gorky
I have only 3 things to teach: simplicity, patience and compassion. Lao Tzu 7th Century Zen master
Know Joy, as in … May all beings know joy … (from the 4 Noble Truths of Zen)
Anywhere you are is a sacred place. Joseph Campbell
Learn to forgive yourself, again, and again, and again . . . (I couldn’t resist getting another wisdom in from Sheldon Kopp’s Laundry List)
Religion is not realisation; not talk, nor doctrine, not theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes, into knowledge. That is religion. Swami Vivekananda
Spend some time alone every day. (from the Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules To Live By)
This is from Astrologer Rob Brezny: Cultivate mental and emotional states that ripen us to be ready for anything: form a strategy to avoid being enthralled with the hypnotic lure of painful emotions, past events, and worries about the future;
Don’t forget to break the rules ….. Dalai Lama, Sheldon Kopp, Zen, suZen
All teachers make a contribution to Yoga. My contribution is Gibberish – every day talk meaningless Gibberish for a few minutes to clear the mundane mind. Swami Vivekananda
Balance is what happens when you know in your heart something is right …. from suZen.
Be in awe of the mystery . . . this quote from a man to whom harmony in the Universe was of prime importance, something Albert Einstein said with great beauty and lucidity:
“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself with the highest wisdom and most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of true religiousness and art.”
All is Well. The ultimate life-lesson of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna to Arjuna.
You can't eat money. Those of us who do have choices several times a day can choose inner peace and balance in living with the energy of food. (Inspired by “When the last tree has gone . . . “ Geronimo?)