Rebel Yoga: Tara Stiles

While many (including me) emphasize the religious and spiritual roots of yoga, Tara Stiles takes another approach.  She just wants people to do yoga and improve their lives and bodies.  She rebels against those teachers who see themselves as gurus.  Her goal is to make yoga accessible rather than difficult and total.  Deepak Chopra is among her students.  I am impressed by her authenticity and determination to simplify this ancient tradition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/nyregion/23stretch.html?sq=yoga&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=all

Anger Transformed

Anger transformed can repair a world and heal a universe.

We Are All Adam

We are all Adam, part of the same cosmic body, reaching out from one end of the universe to the other.

Life Roles

Playing a role in life is a choice, but we can always set it aside and play another.

Creation

Creation is a flow of multiplicity in an ocean of oneness.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Laurence Kant

Chaos

Chaos is always lurking behind sturdy structures, offering the possibility of change and thus transformation.  This is the story of Genesis and of our world today.

Gateways

Space between breaths, dawn and twilight, midnight, change of seasons, a new moon, being born, marrying, dying:  Gateways where the Source reveals Itself.

Self-Recognition

If we want others to see and acknowledge us, we must first see and acknowledge ourselves.

The Past and Wisdom

The past provides the experiential data out of which we create wisdom.

The One and the Many

Important matters are both more simple and more complex than we think.  I always find myself revolting against both those who facilely make broad generalizations and those who won’t say anything conclusive.  Events and ideas are more subtle than easy solutions or the denial of any solutions.  Such is the dynamic of the One and the Many.

Becoming

Becoming exists in the past and the future, not in the present.

Being and Becoming Again

Being born means that we enter creation:  Being and becoming are joined

Awareness

While we often sail along in life with seemingly nothing happening, awareness comes in explosive bursts, punctuating the monotony with volcanic eruptions.

Other times awareness slowly creeps up on us, grabbing us little by little as if it was always there.

A New Day

“A New Day”:  © 2010, Dr. Laurence H. Kant, Essay for the Evolutionary Envisioning Circle of the Annual Great Mother Celebration, September, 2010:  © 2010, Laurence H. Kant, All rights reserved:  NewDay1

Who Are We, You and I: Meditations on Death and Afterlife

See my talk:  Laurence H. Kant, “Who Are We, You and I: Meditations on Death and Afterlife”: Late Life Concerns: The Final Miles, Newman Center, Lexington, Kentucky, August, 2010: © 2010, Laurence H. Kant, All rights reserved:  Who Are We

Avercius (aka Abercius)

Final Draft before publication of Laurence H. Kant “The Earliest Christian Inscription:  Bishop Avercius’ Last Words Document the Emergence of the Church,” in Bible Review 17.1, February, 2001, pp. 10-19, 47:  AverciusBAS1

3b) Here is my most up-to-date edition of the text:  AverciusText

Fish Symbolism

Here is my dissertation:  Laurence H. Kant, “The Interpretation of Religious Symbols in the Graeco-Roman World:  A Case Study of   Early  Christian Fish Symbolism” (3 vols):  Yale University, 1993.  Please note that the pagination in the PDF files, though close, is not exactly the same as in my original dissertation (due to formatting issues).

I originally intended this as part of a comparative study of ancient symbols, including the menorah for Jews.   Given the length of the project, this was not practical.  However, I regard my dissertation as comparative project whose goal is to understand the nature of religious symbolism.

There are many things that I would now change, including writing style.  Of note is the Avercius (Abercius) inscription text, which has several errors; for a correct edition, see above.  I also wish that I had  included a section on the use of fish and fishing symbolism in the gospels.  If interested, take a look at the text of a talk I gave on this topic in “Essays and Talks” in “Larry Kant.”

I have also somewhat changed my views of Freud and Jung.  I always appreciated them, but my dissertation is more critical of them than I would be now.

Diss1; Diss2; Diss3; Diss4; Diss5; Diss6

The One and the Many

We cannot get to the One except through the Many.

Being and Becoming

Being and Becoming:  Being is who we are authentically; becoming is why we enter the cycle of life.  Being teaches us that the authentic present is eternal.  Becoming teaches us that change is ongoing and inevitable.  Wisdom involves integrating both.

American Yoga

This is a timely piece giving a real sense of the difference between modern fitness yoga and the authentic tradition of spiritual discipline practiced by Indian yogis and yoginis.  Yoga is an ancient spiritual practice that was then adapted in other religious traditions in the twentieth century.  Yet, it has its roots in Indian religion, and this is how it first came to the US.  Yoga is not necessarily exercise or breath work, but a system of feeling, thought, and experience. In fact, Yoga does not even have to involve the body at all, but can consist of communal activities or study.  Yoga simply means “union” (as in union with God).

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/3917/mormon-born_daya_mata_typifies_american_yoga/

A Name

Naming the Source is impossible.  Once you name “God,” you are no longer describing the Source.

Holy Texts

Our lives are holy texts, chapters in the sacred scripture of humanity.

Sacred Stories

Our lives are sacred stories. We are here to tell them and inspire others.

Lunch in Erice

There are those moments–moments when you enter a gateway, and you feel the presence of God.  I remember Erice in Sicily:  eating a meal at a local restaurant, lingering, savoring the garlic, the olive oil and the pasta–and most of all the wine–cold, white, shimmering, crisp–Ambrosia, the best wine I ever tasted, the same for Dianne and for our friend Tony. Was it the wine, the town, the restaurant, or the moment with my wife and our friend? I don’t know, but it felt like heaven:  like a dream in which my senses put me deep underwater, gliding effortlessly, with no particular goal, just living fully.

Symbols

Symbols are the medium through which feeling finds form.

Bodies in Flux

Who are we? Definable bodies? But human bodies are composed mostly of water and space. We are descendants of beings who lived in oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. Our bodies are not solid, but fluid and open. Every day the cells in our bodies are born and die. Every seven years, we are composed of entirely new sets of cells. Why do we fix ourselves into an illusion of isolation and rigidity, as concrete form, frozen images, as if we are separate things? In fact, we are permeable, protean, one composed of many, continually transforming. Made in the image of God, we are no/thing, one through many, colored glass turning in a kaleidoscope, always in flux, movement in form.

Strength

In the bleakest moments, our strength comes from where we least expect it.

Justice

Where do we find justice? Only by pursuing it. (Deut 16:20)

Breathing

Rather than working to breathe, let yourselves be breathed. Then you’re not an I, but a We.

Our Task

What is one task of human beings? To convert the everyday into the eternal.

Home

Where should we feel most at home? Inside ourselves.

Jacob’s Ladder

Where is Jacob’s ladder now? Inside each of us.

Honey

“Suckling honey from a rock” (Deut. 32:13): In difficult moments, that’s what we have to do.

Earth Energy

Tapping into the earth’s energy is a lot easier than creating our own.

Compassion

Compassion also means having compassion for those who don’t have much compassion.

Feelings

Every feeling carries with it the faint echo of its opposite: love-hate, courage-fear, compassion-anger. We always have the choice of transforming one into the other.

No Image

God has no image, and neither ultimately do we.

Self

Our names and identities reveal and conceal who we are.

Humor

To be really funny, you have to have suffered.

Love

True love is imprinted in every cell.

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