A pearl went up for auction. No one had enough, so the pearl bought itself. - Rumi Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows. - Nisargadatta Maharaj Yoga Metaphors by Ruthie, 2004 The Sponge (receptivity) Allow the outer shell of your skin to soften and become porous like a sponge, ready to absorb the juices of this practice. Feel the light of your being liquefy and merge with every cell; feel the light of our earth and atmosphere penetrate every receptive layer of your soul and physical form. Fresh squeezed prana with each inhalation, freedom and buoyancy with every exhalation. The Windshield (clarity and perception) Driving with a filthy windshield distorts the lines and shapes and colors of the world. It is unpleasant and difficult to see; vision is impaired because the lens is covered with layers of opaque obstacles. When you finally pull into the gas station, and the friendly gas station guy wipes that windshield clean, there is relief because your perception of the world can once again be clear and honest and unobstructed. I invite you to clear off the windshield of your mind. Inhale your wipers to the left, exhale them to the right. Use the power of your commitment and courage to move into this meditation graciously and gorgeously. Clean your slate. Undistort your lens, so that you can appreciate the rich reality of the world around you. Notice how the world did not change but only your perception of the world. With cleaning our windshield comes clarity. With this clarity we cultivate understanding of ourselves, and therefore others. We bring into the world the either the chaos or the clarity that exists inside of us. When we clean our own windshield we can serve as a Buddha, infused with beautiful emptiness and illumination for our fellow beings. The Tightrope (softening and playfulness) If you are rigid on a tightrope, physically and mentally, you will not find balance. If you engage your core but then soften around that strength and relax into the dynamic waves of the experience of walking on a one inch wide band of canvas, you might have a better chance of taking many steps. But then if you let go of the desire to simply take many steps and see each moment just being on this canvas path as an opportunity to play with gravity, space, weight, and steadiness in challenge, then you will understand the wealth of the exercise. It is not in the ability to get to the other side. It is not in the ability to take more steps than the last try. The true treasure is to learn how to let go of rigidity in goals and in muscles. Find an inner commitment and deep engagement of the muscular core and proceed with a sense of surrender, receptivity, listening and playfulness. In this sense can you see the tightrope of your yoga mat? The Stone Sculpture (negation and letting go) We live in a world of constant accumulation. We accumulate experiences, knowledge, friends, material things, things to do, days, and years. In order to find balance we need to mindfully introduce some process of negation or letting go. A sculptor begins with a huge chunk of marble. He chips away and chips away, following his intuition, until he comes to the essential form that he wants to create. As he gets closer and closer to that shape his carving becomes more detailed and more subtle. Chip away and carve away the excess of what is in your head and your heart and your insides. Unveil your essential form. Through meditation, let go of the accumulations and through negation and reveal your true self. The Horizon Line (union) As you lay in savasana feel into every part of you that comes into contact with the floor below you, which is connected to the architecture below that, and somewhere underneath there is our Mother Earth. Let these parts of you, full of healthy weight, surrender to gravity and merge with the surface of the earth and even go deeper in to the center of the earth. Feel into every part of you that comes into contact with the air above you, which flows freely into the sky above, which moves into the profound cosmic world. Let these parts of you, full of inherent flight, rise and merge with outer space. The pieces of you that merge with the earth are those pieces manifested and tactile and sensual, and those pieces of you that merge with the sky are those pieces that are unmanifested and empty and spacious. Be both in savasana. Go in and down, go up and out. What is in between the layer that descends and the layer that ascends? Can you explore that space with open-minded curiosity? Compost (transformation) Observe your anger, pain, frustration, sorrow without trying to make it go away. Instead, transform this waste into compost for your spiritual garden. Gather information from these emotions. Learn about yourself. Have compassion for others who have similar experiences. And then use this compost to nourish and cultivate a new attitude. So that with mindfulness and intention, everything toxic that comes out of you will trickle back into your Being with a new informed, wonderful and healthy form.