I spent this past weekend up in Boston teaching at Metrowest Yoga. Boston is a mature yoga community and they are pretty serious about their yoga. The weekend started with a three hour intensive with a discussion on what it meant to be empowered and concluded Sunday with a discussion on what it meant to live an Empowered Life. The group was energized and their thoughts were sound and provoking.
Sunday, I read a quote by Carl Jung. The quote was, "the greatest influence on our own life and the life of children is the unlived life of our parents". Those that spoke up were parents and shared their ideas of raising children. Towards the end of the discussion, I presented a different view, "we are all children here....how has your life reflected this quote?" We had to get moving and begin a Hatha yoga practice so we never really got a chance to discuss. Maybe this blog will get some discussion going?
When I contemplate this quote I can immediately look at it two ways (although there are numerous ways of viewing it). The first, how am I perpetuating the unlived life of my parents? Second, what part of their unlived life has influenced me to be different and to go in a different direction? It reminds me of the Buddhist lessons on karma. Karma is energy. The teachings of karma are the teachings of cause and effect.
Because karma has become a fashionable word these days you will often hear people say, "That is your karma". A more accurate understanding would be this is happening right now because of karma. Your karma is the sum total of everything you have thought and experienced up until this very moment of your life.
There is no better way to understand karma than to sit still, get quiet and notice where you are right here and right now in this very moment in your life. Our lives are truly the sum total of all past thoughts and deeds. For me the whole point of practicing Yoga is to get still and pay attention non-judgmentally to how we are framing this moment of our life.
Sit with it long enough, we can literally feel our whole life narrow down to this very moment. This is a very courageous thing do to. It can also become the very ground upon which we can awaken to a new direction or reconfirm the direction our life is headed.
If you do have children a worthy contemplation is how is your unlived life affecting your children--come on Boston yogis and yoginis what do you think? We never finished this discussion.
