Come to Kirtan on October 6 at 7:30, Grace Episcopal

Look at these glowing faces! For the last few weeks, on Thursday nights, I have been going to hear Jon Crane, Clay Hotchkiss, Ann Strickland and Misty Fasig practice Kirtan at Grace Church. When I arrive, I look around the circle and see familiar faces from yoga class along with many new faces. Some sit in chairs, some on the ground, all in the beautiful candle-lit sanctuary of the church. The sounds and vibrations created by the tablas, guitar, harmonium and voices are amazing. They weave Om Shanti, Om together with Amazing Grace. During the silence between the chants our circle seems to contain a whirling of wonderful energy. Toward the end of one evening the nearly full moon rose in the windows high above us. I leave feeling happy and peaceful and filled up - this feeling seems to last into the next day and the chants are the background music in my head. I am so grateful that these soulful musicians are sharing their talents with us!

So come if you can on October 6 to the First Thursday Kirtan - whatever arrangements you have to make to be there will be well worth it! Pay what you can - all proceeds will be donated to an Island family struggling with illness.

What is Karma Yoga?

As a group we have been discussing this question - "What is Karma Yoga?" We were searching for a brief explanation to put on our new bulletin board at BYH but had a hard time narrowing it down to a sentence or two. Katie Zonoff teaches at Bainbridge High School and is a member of the BYH community. She is well versed in yoga philosophy so I asked her for her thoughts on this and she very kindly took the time to write the following - I thought people wanting some background about this Karma Yoga thing would appreciate her response - I sure did:

So all the yogas (Hindus talk about 4 main paths of yoga) are a path to unify with God. God for hindus means an ultimate, infinite reality that we can become completely absorbed in. This reality exists around us and in us at all times, but trapped in this human form we are separated from it. We are finite, limited. Our goal through these many, many cycles of reincarnation is to actually become free from this cycle, to re-unify with God.

The biggest obstacle to our re-unification with God is our ego. We focus constantly on improving ourselves, getting things for ourself - this human body that we occupy for a relatively short time. If we could perceive the true reality, we would see that there is in fact no separation from other people, other animals, plants, whatever. A great Buddhist metaphor to describe this is of waves on the ocean. A wave is made of the same substance as the rest of the ocean, is completely connected to the ocean, and is moving based on the activity in the rest of the ocean, and will soon be completely absorbed back into the ocean. To think of it as separate doesn't really make sense. When we feed our egos, we are like waves trying to be separate from the ocean. Its meaningless. Its a trap we are stuck in. Like believing the world is flat.

So...you can meditate to lessen the grip of ego, or stand on your head, or sing songs about God, or pray - or you could do Karma Yoga. The yoga of work. Since all humans have to work, we can find ways to harness this activity for spiritual growth. So when I teach, I shouldn't teach to get the Teacher of the Year award or to be popular, but to focus all my thoughts and energies on my students. What do they need, even if it makes me unpopular. I just do it and don't worry about the results to me. When I cook for my family, I change my mindset from feeling that its unfair that I'm doing all the work, or making unhealthy things to be popular, and I selflessly take lots of time to cook something healthy for others.

So you can do Karma Yoga with the regular work that you do every day. But doing service work, like cooking for a family in need, is a really clear way to practice lessening ego. I'm clearly taking my time that I could use to seek pleasure or success, and giving it to another. I matter less, they matter more. The more that I forget myself, the closer I am to God. Which is really what I want in the end.

Here's a couple of quotes:

"Everything I do for my private wellbeing adds another layer to my ego, and in thickening it insulates me more from God. Conversely, every act done without thought for myself diminishes my self-centeredness until finally no barrier remains to separate me from the Divine."
Huston Smith, The World's Religions

"Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind. It was by such work that Janaka attained perfection; others too have followed this path.

What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The standards such people create will be followed by the whole world."
Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 3 v. 19-21, transl. Eknath Easwaran

Thank you Katie.

A Beautiful Picture

This picture was taken by Joyce Cooley - I just thought it was so beautiful it should be on our blog.

Support a Bainbridge Family

A Bainbridge family is dealing with the recent diagnosis of their husband and father with cancer. As a community, we have an opportunity to help them. One of the family’s neighbors set up a Meal Train site so that people can nourish for the family with homemade meals. You can use the following link to access the meal train site.

http://www.mealtrain.com?id=mump4x2aveot

There will be a donation basket for this family at the Kirtan on October 6 at 7:30

Grace Church.