Eck Ong Kar. All Are One.

Manipura, the ignition, the place of power, permission, and esteem.

Practicing this sequence over the past 2 weeks has entangled itself in the current upheaval of political events. This sequence activates - it elevates my action-ing, my doing, and in so doing, my being.

Manipura requires vision because we don’t want blind action, aimless, hopeless, erratic action.

And vision for me requires time and attention, learning, listening, testing, reflecting.

So class after class I am increasingly aware, what can I see? What are the actions I will take? What are the actions I stand by? Or am I simply standing by?

I spent last weekend reading and this article by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in the Guardian was helpful. I printed it out, got out my highlighter, my notebook, read through twice because the ah-ha moments were what I’d sought. Through it I could see not only my perspective and assumptions, but the underlying motivation of powerful decision-makers just now. It helped make sense of the disconnect between outer actions of finance and diplomacy and my fundamental drive to protect all life here in this day.

“We are up against an ideology that has given up not only on the premise and promise of the liberal democracy but on the livability of our shared world - on its beauty, on its people, on our children, on other species.”

If you knew there was to be another quarantine, would you rush out and buy extra supplies, all the toilet paper you could? There might be a thought along those lines. You would want your family to have all they need in a time of dwindling resources. And this is true of the powerful elite as well. As the concerns of climate change and global crisis come to an undeniable head, they are withdrawing to islands of care - both physical and diplomatic.

The drive is real and natural. I understand. However, my concern is twofold: the sudden shift from trying to make regenerative choices to hoarding resources, and the concept of “family” and the ones we are bringing into the “island” of care and concern.

This article helped me to see the necessity of RECIPROCITY of action.

The action of arriving on my mat can seem self-serving: I practice, I grow. And yet my growth, my light, it affects every conversation, purchase, product, embrace, and creation that comes from me. There is no keeping my actions to myself. If I skip my practice, if I actively cultivate a quality of selfishness, still this affects others. Eck Ong Kar / We Are One.

We will all run out. Or, we will all have.

So there can be a direction to my action. I can become wildly creative in my generosity. I can build light, wrap the projects and decisions of others - human and non-human - in my self-generated care.

“Go back far enough and every culture and faith has its own tradition of respecting the sanctity of here. … ‘Hereness’ can be portable, free of nationalism, rooted in solidarity, respectful of indigenous rights and unbounded by borders.”

I am cultivating hereness with every gesture and breath.

This makes sense to me.

And even more importantly, as you practice, your hereness can be shared, as can mine and rather than running out of here, our joined light just makes more.

I was struck that over the span of 3 days 7 people from our practice community contacted me to share that they had found themselves buoyed / guided / inspired / motivated / resourced by forces that were showing up inside and around them. They knew these forces to be their own AND to be newly crafted and honed in our time together.

I love this.

We are making more collectively by taking time to take action that serves us individually.

This gives me hope.

If you like, here is the Guardian article again.

And here is a piece from Elise Loenen asking us to “hear the call.”

I am asking us to act from manipura, from a “city of gems” that is a place in us and for us all.

(And again, from Anu, use your time for what matters most. This is genius.)