the dharma talks

there is a field

perhaps in my admitted delusion i was hoping — dare i say expecting — that, come today, the seismic shift of the renowned establishment of pure yoga nyc unduly transforming into equinox 76th street would be met with a shuddering : april fool’s !!!

alas, any such notion was, indeed, pure delusion …

so, over the past weekend — a weekend symbolized by crucifixion and resurrection — i taught my last class ever at pure yoga … believe it or not, i have taught several last class evers in my illustrious career … to be honest with you, they are usually disappointing … my last class ever at pure yoga, however, was anything but a disappointment …

in addition to the last class ever at laughing lotus bk — to me — this felt like one for the record books … as i am writing this now, shortly before teaching my first class ever at equinox, i quiver in the realization that the path to enlightenment will always be wrought with pain, sadness, gratitude, loss and irony …

something ends, and something begins … one door closes, so that another one can open … sometimes, for a nestling baby bird to fly it must be pushed out of its comfortable nest … a caterpillar cannot turn into a butterfly without breaking through the cocoon in which it develops … the lotus flower has to push its way up through the muck, and through its own proverbial darkness, to emerge into the light of its own self-realization …

and on … and on i could go with the metaphors and analogies …

i am, though, struck by the ultimate realization that this is non-duality … it does become difficult — for me — to remember in these moments of unwelcomed change that nothing is really ever as it seems …

this is the process of removing the veil, and —ultimately, i believe, it is why we are here …

as rumi so poetically postures : there is a field beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing … thank you for being with me in this majestic field …

~ me, being flown after my last class ever at pure yoga by the one and only sandy ames

~ rumi