Rules

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Our Study Group has been dancing for awhile now, cutting a pretty mean 'rug', some might say. Cutting through things is important practice. What's at the core? What is being said? Understood? Done?

Yet, I am finding that if we really like something, we will find a way to make it not only "OK", but downright necessary to do. We will then weave a new rug spun from threads grown of either desire or necessity. Yet woven in such a way as to make what was once understood one way, now understood in another way. The new way is on the one hand closer to the Infinite (we convince ourselves) and on the other hand, something we really wanted to do in the first place (more truthful).

An article on the question of Yoga's place in Judaism set off a whole chain of thoughts in this regard, as the author, an Orthodox Jewish woman, clearly struggled with archaic notions foisted upon her by her rigid theology. In the end she seemingly came to no conclusion, yet continued her yoga practice. As my yoga teacher said last night of this, "she liked it!"


We are a species of rationalizers and once we discern a rationalization, we seem to think we have found a blemish in the sterling nature of a position. I am not convinced.

Reframing an old position in order to come to terms with new circumstances is an evolutionary and highly adaptive practice. It suggests principle rather than rule.

We are far more than our rules. We (and our continuation as a interdependent species) are the reason for the rules in the first place.

When looking at a precept, do not see a rule, see a principle. As one of my old friends and a social wok pioneer used to say, we needed "principles for living." Rules are not principles, they are ruts. Getting stuck in one disallows fresh energy to enter us and so we wilt.

To live in the present moment requires a willingness to live within immediate touch of the ultimate meaning of our lives. If I say, 'do not kill' I am also saying "support and nurture life". As fearless bodhisattva warrior, we should practice to use ourselves toward this aim.

In a world of One, there is no Christian, no Jewish, no Muslim, no Hindu, no Naive American: there are just practices, gates if you will, which invite us closer to the Infinite. Like fingers pointing to it, please don't mistake them for the moon.

Be well.