Laughing Yoginis

I laugh a lot in yoga class -- ever since the name of the blog popped into my head. Must have some karma ripening there. Some joy karma. But I am not nearly wise enough to be called a Yogini myself. Just call me laughing Pema .

I meant sleepy yoginis......zzzzzzzzz...... no, no, I really meant laughing yoginis.......its me who is sleepy.

Forget the words, other than the main line -- this song makes my heart sing!!!!!! He sounds like an angel, makes me want to DANCE!!!!!! I'm losing you -- yeah, losing my delusions!!!! LOVE IS THE SWEETEST THING. OOOHHHHHHH, LOVE IS THE SWEETEST THING. !!!!!! Woooha hiiiiiggh, Ain't love the sweetest thing? I'm looking at blue skies (and emerald green oceans) OH YEAH LOVE IS THE SWEETEST THING!!!!!!! Oh yeah, I'm dancing. I'm dancing right into the weekend. And I'm gonna be dancing right into enlightenment. ENCORE!!!!! OH YEAH, LOVE IS THE SWEETEST THING! This is the joyous path!!!!!

[Do not try this at home unless you are trained in bodhicitta. I am not wise, and in this case I just got lucky] I walked into the corridor leading to my neuromuscular therapist's office. Its all Feng Shue'd there so the front of the corridor is a little cramped, making you want to go into the building. I was about to go open the office door when out came a man from another office. He looked kind of polished . Almost like he didn't belong. I think it was the combination of the shine on his shoes, the crispness of his button down shirt and slacks, and the amount of gel (not too much) that he had in his hair. He was so close I couldn't open the other door. Cramped as I said, but not unpleasant. He asked me where to find a Starbucks. I asked him if he wanted the one with the drive-through or not. I gave him directions. He thanked me. Then he hesitated. And that was when I picked up on something else . That thing that lets you know there is something more to the conversatio...

Hey, the light turned green and I'm off to practice!!! I feel better -- I feel alive again. A little residue left, but it'll melt away. I am ready to laugh again! Are you? Where is that darn Jesus Loves Me Barney Bubble Blowing Necklace when you need it?

That is why they call us Buddhists, not Buddhas. What a great line! Its so true.

When the torrent of everyday dilemma and unenlightened perception swirls into a storm of dysfunction, there is something that runs deeper and quieter and more powerful. Shining like a beacon in dense fog, my practice calls to me continuously. It says, "I am here for you. I have never failed you." And I begin to remember that clarity exists. I feel it in my bones and I realize that I am stronger than my dysfunctional viewpoints. I can wait them out, even if they are uncomfortable. And in the end I know I will laugh at how seriously I took such a small dilemma. Bring on the rampaging elephants. I am ready to ride.

Actually, if we look around, people whom we don't like and people who harm us are in the minority. Let's say we're at work, at a social gathering, or at a Dharma center with thirty people. How many of them do we really dislike? We may have problems with a few people here and there, but we manage to stay in a room together, don't we? It's not like we despise them and they hate us. The number of people we can't stand in this world is actually very small. These people are rare. To practice patience we need the people that we don't like. We can't practice patience with our friends or with people who are kind to us. Finding people that we don't like or who threaten us is not so easy. So, when we finally find them, they are a precious treasure! They are rare to find. When we meet them, we can think, "Fantastic, I get to practice patience now." They say that high-level bodhisattvas pray to meet disgusting, uncooperative people because they want to...

The guy in me wants to be a New Warrior . Since I was young, I always suspected we have what Rinpoche calls dynamic polarity. The balance of male/female energies that has little to do with gender identity. It is an inner process that is natural. A balance that is natural. Being unenlightened, I've expressed this on the outside since I was little, equally enjoying 'guy' things as much as 'girl' things. I liked manly sports and (used to drink) whiskey on the rocks and ocassionally smoke cigars. I liked fluffy girly dresses, frozen drinks, and chick flicks. My new warrior friends have explained kindly that there is a women's group I could join. I kindly explained back that the guy in me won't be able to learn about the unique aspects of the male process from being in a women's group. They get it. I sort of get it. The guy in me wants to understand how the male energies get expressed in this world system. An all mens group for my inner guy. Dynamic interior ...

I have a life filled with gender inclusiveness. So my only dissatisfaction with the blog title is that it doesn't say (in addition to the current title) Laughing Yogis: And I thought, 'if we were all enlightened right now, we would be called laughing Yogi's .' Unfortunately its too long for the way the blog is formatted. One day I will have to do something about that. In the meantime, maybe the title should at least say, "Laughing Yogis welcome." But I am afraid the yogis might get the wrong impression *wink*. So it is the way it is.

I read this again, and I could not have said it better: A zillion hellos

She snatched him away from a life of anger. Does that make her a bodhisattva? Maybe. Maybe not. But he is released. Go see Cats of Mirikitani if you have a chance.

Its nice to know that delusions have very little to do with our being. They are only ours because we claim them. We say, "Oh yes, that is MY anger" instead of "What? I am angry? But I have no interest in anger. It has nothing to do with me." and simply washing our hands of it. For instance, if some small child you did not know sneezed on you, you wouldn't say, "Oh, well, this is my snot, I'll just wear it" NO! You would say (perhaps just to yourself), YUK!!!! This is not mine. Get it off me as quickly as possible. Yeah, sort of like that. What, anger? Yuk, get it off me! I think some obstacles are like that too. They are only there because you claim them. You take them seriously and you say, "Oh, yes, this is the way I am -- this is me." When the correct things would be to say, (say it with me) "Yuk, get it off me." And boy do I have an obstacle. I think I mentioned that. Remember when I wasn't laughing? Yeah, I found a hor...

This is my list of things to do during my last business trip to Edison, New Jersey 1) Visit a local Buddhist temple and perhaps meditate there 2) Find a local Yoga Studio and do Yoga 3) Visit ground zero And following a rather uneventful trip, this is my list of things to do during my next trip to Edison, New Jersey 1) Visit a local Buddhist temple and perhaps meditate there 2) Find a local Yoga Studio and do Yoga 3) Visit ground zero

This is me writing for ....mostly for myself. I feel disconnected. Kicked out of my own spiritual life. On the curb. Sitting on the curb watching video -- and movies -- and, well CRAP. What happened to the laughing yoginis? This kind of disconnected is so unpleasant. [This is me pretty much whining] But it also may be useful. It could be the disconnected of despondent and lazy, but somehow it feels more like the quiet uncomfortable waiting for the next step in the process. OK, were you thinking the life of a meditator is glamorous? Try looking at your gold plated crap for a while. Starts to smell. Then what do you do with it? If you managed getting it on to the curb maybe the garbage man will come and pick it up. Maybe I am waiting for the garbage man. With a bitter taste in my mouth. So I said rounds of purification mantra and prayed. [Hey, when you stink you can take a shower!] But I didn't meditate. To push or not to push (on the meditation) is the question. I'm not experie...

I rarely write for myself alone. When I do, my words are dry and brittle. Uninteresting and not worth remembering. But when I write for others, I seem to come alive inside. The words on the page are mostly a byproduct of my ....... my....... well I think the best word is probably prayers. My hopes and dreams and wishes for the well being of others. And whether the words come alive for others is less relevant than what is alive on the inner level. I write about things I learned from you and things I wish for you. I write what inspires me from interacting with you. And in that way, these entries are about me. And in that way all of the entries are written for the one who is reading now -- they are all written for you. Take what you wish. Don't worry if it was originally for you or others, because it isn't about that. And if you see a small part of yourself reflected in these pages, then please remember that I am only one unenlightened being with unenlightened perceptions looking ...

I wasn't going to write for you. I thought about it often. But I thought it would be too obvious -- even more obvious than the entry I wrote in India on the man with orange hair . And I thought it would be too predictable -- I already wrote about yoga, and this is what, only the third entry? And I thought that maybe people would think that I had nothing better to do than to write about Yoga instructors. But Yoga has been on my mind lately. And I want to remember the early days of Yoga ....... And therefore my Yoga instructors as well. ...... And then when I mentioned the blog name you seemed interested. And that didn't go entirely unnoticed. And when did I ever worry about perception, perhaps even to a fault ? So here is the second entry about Yoga, for you my second Yoga instructor, because you deserve to come alive here too. An evolutionary journey. The next paragraph may have an odd tone, but its important for what comes later. First, turtle pose I remember our meeting. It ...

The cycle of continuous improvement is dependant on continuous change. Therefore if our goal is to better ourselves, then our goal is to be immersed in the change cycle. Water me often, even now I am growing.

What do you give a stellar yoga teacher who comes to your home and give a private lesson for free? One who resists the commodotization of yoga and who teaches economics for the love of it? And what gift does one give when she brings along her lovely med student partner who gives wonderful advice as well? After some thoughts of beautiful statues, donations to nonprofits, gifts from India, my mind settles on a memory from the past. I think to myself with satisfaction that the answer is a Jesus Loves Me Barney Bubble Blowing Necklace. A tiny purple plastic dinosaur about three inches high, hollow and filled with bubble making juice (what is the technical term?). On its tiny green belly is written "Jesus Loves Me." You can twist off the tiny cap and blow the smallest bubbles ever. It comes complete with a little woven purple cord so that you can wear it around your neck. I bought five of them for 17 cents each at Crazy Franks near Mineral Point. And I gave them all away, carefull...