The 5th Season

As I delve into Mark Nepo's "The Fifth Season" and participate in the readings and journal exercises, I find myself inspired to share my reflections through the lens of the 8-Limbs of Yoga, with a particular emphasis on the Niyamas. Therefore, in the coming days, weeks, or possibly months, my reflections will be centered on the Niyamas - personal observances (as I understand them).

But first, here are my musings, some of which are specifically Mark Nepo's words others are his words combined with my perspective. I have no intent on plagiarism, so know that all of this has been inspired by Nepo (and everyone else I have studied).

As I age:

• we are worn of all that doesn't matter

• the goal >> to live more fully so we can die with no feeling unfelt, no voice left unheard, and no thing left unloved

• the goal >> to no longer want things, but rather only moments / experiences

• the goal >> to put down all that I've been carrying and simply be

• this is the "tender bareness of being" to experience the lightness of being

• the bareness of being is being close to what matters, and by being close means to be intimate with or be in relationship with or to be open to

• So, how shall we live?

  • In truth, each of us will die, the question is, will each of us live?

• As I age, my intention is to consistently be the student (again and again), that the moment I think "I know" that I will recognize that is the first step of not knowing

• the goal >> to learn more about myself in relation to everything else and to be close to what matters, despite the risk of heart, risk of vulnerability, loss, and suffering...because living this way allows me to open to love, awe & wonder, and joy

• closeness is intimacy >> where we meet in the field of presence

  • Rumi - Out beyond right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field, I will meet you there.

    • right-doing >> all the intentional acts of living (living consciously)

    • wrong-doing >> all the unconscious activities/behaviors that are motivated by fear, anger, hurt, hate etc. (the EGO untethered).

  • In the field >> there is no "doing"

    • knowledge is worn into knowing

    • seeking into being

    • struggling with the truth is worn into "inhabiting the truth of the struggle" (Nepo)

    • truth >> there is "no thing" and "every thing" at the same time

• we are challenged to face life in both directions >> stand in the doorsill

  • how do we balance constriction with expansion?

  • how do we balance striving with the simplicity of acceptance?

  • the doorsill as defined by Coleman Barks

    • doorsill - "the liminal threshold or spiritual boundary where the physical world and divine/spiritual world meet"

    • where dualities dissolve

    • "where the two worlds touch"

    • the thin veil between physical body and soul, temporal world and eternity, human and divine go back and forth

• the gift of life is

  • presence >> living where we are

  • presence >> is the state of being mindful and aware (open to and experiencing all the senses (hear, taste, smell, touch, see and feel)

• when living in presence we are dropped into the "Center of Being" (Nepo) and there is a shift from pursuing (striving) to inhabiting life (acceptance, openness, Santosha)

  • inhabit life >> "the quiet courage to keep our heart open long enough for the person before us to open their heart" (Nepo)

  • inhabit life >> giving life time to open

• to live, "to measure living is not the length of life, but rather the depth and breadth of how deeply and fully we are touched by ALL of life in any given moment" (Nepo)