cherydactyl

Infinite altruism is the basis of peace and happiness. If you want altruism, you must control hate and you must practice patience. The main teachers of patience are our enemies. --HH the Dalai Lama (Apparently from a HHDL calendar, posted by someone on buddhists today.)

This morning as I was going to my yoga class, two of the other class participants had a shouting match as I was getting out of my car. They had a traffic disagreement apparently. One woman accused the other of 'trying to kill her,' and the other said something about staying in one's own lane. I entered, wondering if I ought to warn our instructor.

Class went off without much hitch as it turned out, but C (one of the women involved) mentioned it after class to Sondra (the instructor), so a discussion of vritis /vree-tees/ (often translated as 'agitations'), dealing with difficult people, and what constituted evil ensued. I was a little put off by Sondra aligning herself with her longtime student C (by calling the other woman, or her actions, it was unclear which, 'evil'), and I tried to insert the idea of anger and agitation instead of actual evil as the cause of the difficulties. The other woman had left already, and was therefore unable to explain or defend herself.

I looked up Howard Jones' offiical web site today. He was one of my favorite artists back in the 80s, in middle and high school. If you don't know his stuff, well, I don't know what to say about that. Just about all of it is very uplifting, at least for me. It turns out that the buddhist themes I thought I was hearing are there, are deliberate...there is a section on buddhism right alongside his bio. Like I said, I'm slow but I get there. :)

I just opened my new copy of Dream Into Action yesterday. It lifted me out of an impending funk, got me bouncing and ready to tackle anything. Suddenly, I feel I've got to get as much of his work as I can!

I don't know if it's synergy or coincidence or cause, but I am more committed to exploring yoga as a life and career, to reading about and studying buddhism and the yoga sutras, getting my body and my household and my life in better shape, to being the best me I can be. I am grateful for the music and the motivation. Thank you!!!

He has just finished a US tour. So I have time to plan so I can see him next go around.

Why look for the key in another
The answer lay in his own heart
won't find yourself in some other
It was always right there at the start

Howard Jones, excerpt from Why Look For the Key