Ride the Breath Yoga Shala

01/16/2022

The simple practice of Saying Hello:

A very simple but effective practice to intimately connect to the happenings of our lives is to say “Hello” to our direct experience. Saying Hello, over and over throughout the day, ensures we consciously greet our field of awareness and deepen our relationship to what is appearing right in front of us; both on and off the meditation cushion.

Before it morphed into a casual greeting during the past century, Hello was originally intended to attract attention or indicate surprise or excitement, e.g., well Hello!! — and it is more potent if we remember its roots. Each Hello can be a full selfless embrace to spontaneously and surprisingly pop open in the NOW!

If we think about it, the practice of Hello requires us to progressively embrace openness and remove self-imposed boundaries to deepen our intimacy with each other. During a first greeting with another Human Being, we each put up self-conscious boundaries to protect ourselves until we develop the necessary familiarity and trust. As our relationship grows, we open more and more to each other until we release all boundaries into a full Hello — one where Loving Openness is completely embraced.

However, Hello doesn’t have to be confined to greeting another; it can apply to everything within our awareness. We can say Hello to Openness, Kindness, Gratefulness, Joy, and Love. We can greet the Sun, Moon, Sky, and Mother Earth herself. We can say Hello to our Divine bodies, and our miraculous life sustaining heartbeat and breath. We can say Hello to the lessons of each day, and the Mystery of this Life, the Knowing and the Known, as well as the Unknown. Finally, We can say Hello to our failings, foibles, personal pain, and self-limiting beliefs so that we can step forward and begin to transform and heal.

When we consciously greet our experience, we dissolve boundaries, deepen our intimacy with Life, and wake up to what’s happening Right Now. We recognize with each new, fresh, and open greeting that Nature returns the favor; continuously and Lovingly saying Hello. I invite each of us to greet the miracle of our experience with all of our Heart, and Say Hello to Life — over and over and over again.

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01/01/2022

A New Year's day reflection....Surrender to Receive. Hope this resonates with you.

The Path of Self Love reveals itself in an instant when we surrender to what's happening Right Now

10/23/2021

I offer this freely, and hope it is received fully with a Humble and Open Heart;

As the mystic ceremony filled the infinite space, her message was clear and profound

09/15/2021

Say YES to your Life!

Say Yes to the interconnected and interdependent wholeness of Reality...

08/21/2021

Teachings from the Tree...

I first noticed the tree while finishing an early morning run on campus.

06/19/2021

Here is my latest piece...."Showing Up for Life". Hope you enjoy it.
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For me, one of Life’s great ironies is that we have to practice in order to be fully human. Instead of unfolding our intrinsic perfection naturally and organically like a flower, we must engage in transformational practices (e.g., Yoga, Meditation, Pranayama, Psycho-Therapy) to become healthy, mature, and productive Human Beings with a sense of wholeness and completeness. As I’ve written previously, these practices help us align with what is already Right Here and Right Now. There is Nowhere to go and Nothing to seek, and yet the paradox remains that we must practice in order to recognize and stabilize this perspective in our Minds. Moreover, these practices take commitment, determination, and sustained effort. We cannot merely dabble in them and hope to reap Life-changing benefits.

We have to resolve to fully Show Up, every day, every time, and everywhere; and Showing Up is the most important practice we can undertake.

It is the practice of remembering to actively recognize and engage the best version of ourselves as often as possible. We choose to bring our Openness, Energy, Enthusiasm, Interest, Joy, Gratitude, Wonder, and Love to the task at hand in order to raise our frequency and joyfully resonate with All That Is. When we do this consistently, every day, even for only 15-20 minutes, there is a growing body of research confirming it changes us in all ways positive — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Of course, this might sound easy to do, but we know it isn’t. We are all programmed by our past experience, with its mental and emotional baggage, and that means we often “Show Down” instead of Show Up. We engage our practices and daily lives from a perspective of — Low Energy, Low Frequency, Flat, Disinterested, Bored, Angry, and/or Frustrated. The bad news here is that the research clearly shows that “neurons which fire together, wire together”, i.e., if “Showing Down” becomes a habit, we will continue to program ourselves to live in a self-limiting way. In order to transform ourselves, grow beyond limiting beliefs and self-doubts, and find true freedom, we must increase our mental and emotional energy Before We Begin the practice.

We Show Up as our imagined Future Self of Intrinsic Perfection, Joy, Love, and Gratitude; and remain completely Open to wondrous possibilities.

How do we accomplish this? We set an intention to begin every practice by taking a few minutes to fully Show Up and Practice As This Imagined Future Self:

We allow our minds to rest and settle into the Open Ground of Being, and deeply appreciate the stability of our awareness,
We Generate deep Gratitude for the gift of every moment, given to us freely without any conditions, over and over and over again,
We Affirm our deepest aspirations for awakening to benefit All Beings;
We Feel the warmth of intimate wholeness and connection shining from a Golden Sun in the center of our Hearts;
We Imagine the pure truthful speech of an Awakened Being emanating as our voice,
We Receive, Accept, and Celebrate the Joyful Bliss of Divine Inspiration
When we practice and live from this perspective, we naturally transform and flower because these Higher Emotions are the very attributes of our True Nature. We willingly embrace the Unknown and participate with trust and faith in a wondrous unfolding and unlocking our full potential. We become a vehicle for True Nature to express Itself through us — All we have to do is Show Up.

We have to resolve to fully Show Up, every day, every time, and everywhere....

05/15/2021

Are you on the path of transformational growth? Here are my thoughts on the topic. Comments welcome, and hope you enjoy!

In short, we Grow when we fundamentally Change our Minds...

04/24/2021

04/05/2021

We naturally align through our practices -- no need to get anywhere. We just harmonize and resonate with what's already Right Here.

Instead of trying to find happiness, we align with the ever present happiness that's already Right Here in our Mind Streams.

01/18/2021

I hope this latest piece is inspiring..."Dissolving the Doer"

Don't we all want to live freely, fearlessly, and lovingly?

10/29/2020

The Great Revelation...

This Reality is without a name, we speak to it through our Hearts;

08/22/2020

Sacred Downloads, Part 1...

As the journey continued to unfold and deepen, SHE spoke to me and said....

Why would you ever believe you are not good enough? Since when is the entire universe not enough? Realize that "You" are not doing any of this.....I am doing All Through You...and You are doing All Through Me. We are inseparable Lovers, in perpetual intimate embrace. When is Infinite Loving not good enough?

Although it has appeared in an endless variety of forms throughout your Life, You have always had only One Choice to make,...to fully embrace NOW, or withdraw into Separation. Every time You withdraw, close down, back off, retreat, push away, or deny, the Entire Universe weeps for you. The Only Choice is to Open to Yourself. Let Go, allow all boundaries to disappear, and Feel the Fullness of LOVE...already waiting in your own Heart. Then, and only then, do We consciously walk this Path Together.

Challenge and examine Every Belief you hold. All Beliefs are your own self-imposed boundaries, and My Reality is Beyond Belief and has no boundaries. Realize that the Ground of Reality is Simple Knowing, and the Entry into Divine Mystery lies in the Knowing of Not-Knowing. The Loving movement of Not-Knowing appears as Grace in your Life; and the stable Knowing of Grace in your Mindstream is the unfolding of Divine Synchronicity. Only from this place can you Consciously participate in the miraculous unfolding of the Divine Plan.

Know that all Appearing and all Experiencing is spontaneously arising within Me and through You. We are the Divine Play, and our creative potential and expressions are infinite. The Direct doorway to effortless spontaneity is WONDER and JOY. Cultivate both through the recognition of Limitless Unconditional Love.

Love Is, and that is all you can ever say. It is not possible to Know Love because Love is not "a thing" that can be known. It is Reality itself and Beyond all Concepts. Any idea you have about Love is just your finger pointing at the Moon. Love is Divine Unknowable Mystery. Allow Its Magic to permeate All You Are and All You Do.

Your movements away from Loving Nowness are the seeds of all separation, isolation, loneliness, and Hell Realms that exist on Mother Earth. Love IS, and any movement away from this Truth is a movement toward incoherence, dis-harmony, and chaos. The Choice is Yours, but Clearly Understand that your choice affects the choices of others. There is no I...only We, and LOVE is Why there is a We.

As the journey continued to unfold and deepen, SHE spoke to me and said....

08/16/2020

Here is Part 2 of Accept Everything, where I share the story of the death of my teacher...

He looked at me again and said with a tone of complete acceptance, "My Life is over". He began to weep softly...

08/02/2020

Accept Everything...

The truth is that we are happy to receive and accept as long as it doesn't trigger our negative reactivity, or expose our hidden vulnerabilities and fears.

06/20/2020

Recognize the truth and let gratitude grow in your heart and shine for others.

Our way forward together is clear and simple, but simple does not mean easy.

06/14/2020

Let's heal our Pain together. We need it badly....

We’ve all been experiencing a tidal wave of bad news for many months now; the ongoing pandemic with a death toll exceeding 115,000 in this country alone, a deeply fractured economy with massive unemployment (over 40 million people at last count), senseless racism, violence, murders, police brutality, and deceitful politics and policies — a seemingly endless list of horrific pain and suffering across the entire planet. Yes, this is where we are right now, and it is very painful — too painful to hear, too painful to watch, too painful to feel, too painful to hold, and just too painful to even go there. But go we must, because that is the only path that will heal us — individually and collectively.

However, before we proceed, let’s Ground ourselves in the Truth; namely, everything and everyone is interconnected and interdependent on everything and everyone else. We and Mother Earth exist within an interdependent Field of Being — completely interconnected on every level, whether we recognize it or not. More specifically, everything we are experiencing is an expression of Being Itself.

Being is without boundaries — It is Everywhere, Is Everything; and most importantly Is always Knowing Itself; including all of our unique and collective Pain.

We all know Pain; physical, emotional, and mental — intense, minor, transitory, persistent, or continuous — individual, group, collective, or cultural. There are as many varieties of Pain as there are Beings on this planet because all Pain is created by our Minds; uniquely and collectively. Pain is a projection of the Mind; and as we all know, a very powerful one — and it is ubiquitous to this Reality and This Life — totally unavoidable. We will certainly continue to experience pain — however, we must each examine our relationship to pain. Do we live our lives trying to avoid it at all costs, or do we work with our pain by Being in intimate, caring relationship? The only way to heal is by doing the latter, and we all know what happens if we don’t.

Each of us knows people (maybe ourselves) that continuously structure and arrange our lives to avoid pain — and it is a never ending cycle. Our actions to avoid our pain guarantees its continued existence and power over our lives. The only way to heal pain is to be in direct relationship with it — to attune ourselves to our physical, emotional, and mental wounds.

If we can hold pain in intimate and loving embrace, it will begin to metabolize and dissolve — no longer controlling our actions.

Of course, this is not an easy or quick path, but it is essential that we all journey together, because much of the pain we experience is not our own — it is the pain of others; the pain of the Field of Being. Since we are interconnected Beings on every level, we feel the pain of others — and often very deeply. The mistake we can make is to name that pain as “our own”. Now we have created a problem (my pain), that either needs to be healed or included with our Pain Identity which we consciously and unconsciously try to avoid.

When life’s experiences become “too painful to go there”, we create boundaries to make sure we never do.

Those unique boundaries in each of us become the Collective Pain of our society; and we are seeing this in full blown High Definition Right Now. The only solution is to heal ourselves One By One — until One by One becomes Everyone. How do we heal ourselves? — by working skillfully with our own Body-Mind.

We have approximately 34 Trillion cells within our bodies; and each one vibrating and pulsating with life. When we calm our Minds and feel our bodies, we are in direct relationship with the moment-by-moment vibratory sensation of Mother Earth herself. Moreover, our bodies are finely tuned antenna; both Receiving and Transmitting the moment-by-moment Gift of Being. Each of those 34 trillion cells is receiving and transmitting the Wholistic Information of Being Itself — and the unique and collective pain of others is certainly included. All we need to do is to recognize and intimately hold our collective pain on behalf of all Beings — with a clear Intention of Loving Kindness and Healing.

This is certainly something we can do. One obvious example of a Great Being illuminating the path within the Christian Tradition is Jesus himself. When we can hold the image of the crucifixion in our Hearts, we are directly experiencing the LOVE of a Being that was able to hold and heal the Pain of all Humanity. Jesus had no boundaries of experience which were too painful to hold and embrace. He was demonstrating for all of us that healing our Pain is the direct path to LIBERATION; and there are many examples of other Great Beings that have done the same. Let us all embark on this sacred work for ourselves and others.

If we can do this for each other every day, then One-by-One will surely become Everyone. This ongoing cycle of madness, driven by selfish separation and divisiveness, will surely cease.

Yes, this is where we are right now, and it is very painful.....

05/24/2020

Here is my latest writing on metacognition, Part 3 (Witnessing and Awakening) Hope you enjoy.

Fran.

https://ridethebreath.com/metacognition-part-3-witnessing-and-awakening/

Put simply, metacognition is the “knowing of knowing”, or being clearly aware of our own awareness; and as we’ve explored previously, developing and honing our metacognitive skills is essential for beneficial learning and growth — namely, healthy self development, maturation, and continuity of positive states of Being. The foundation of this practice is to generate strong Intention on where and how to place our Attention, on what is happening Right Now. In short, we practice Attending to our Experience with deep interest, intimacy, clarity, and fullness; over and over and over again.

Slowly but surely, day-by-day, we find our lives transforming as we live more and more often through the lens of a clear, open, and loving Mind.

As our metacogniton becomes stronger, with more clarity and stability, we naturally become more and more interested in understanding and exploring awareness itself. We realize that everything we experience is within our field of awareness, and we start taking awareness as The Whole Path, not just an aspect of our daily meditation and contemplation practices. We recognize that the quality, richness, fullness, and clarity of our lives is directly dependent on the quality, richness, fullness, and clarity of our awareness. This is a powerful and liberating insight — a lightning bolt of transformation which changes everything.

As we dive deep into the “knowing of knowing”, two simple, sacred, and profound questions reveal themselves — “who is the knower that knows?”, and “where is the knower that knows?”

A less personal, but equally effective phrasing of these questions is, “what is our awareness?”, and “where is our awareness?” The answers are simple and direct, but we have to know how and where to look. If we take some time to sit quietly with our eyes and ears wide open, and our clear Attention focused on the entire visual and auditory field; it is obvious that everything is in a state of flux; dynamically changing, appearing, and disappearing. Similarly, if we bring our Attention to the sensations of our body, we find the same thing — bodily sensation is vibratory, dynamic, and always changing; much like the weather. Our field of experience is a flowing stream of change –simultaneously coming and going.

The spacious visual field is changing with each dancing ray of light; and all sounds are emerging from silence and disappearing back into silence; moment by moment. Within our body, the vibratory sensations of breathing emerge from stillness and disappear back into stillness in each moment. This is the truth of impermanence — where Time operates, everything must change, in every moment. There is a direct knowing of the coming and going of our lives in each instant. That much is obvious and easily verified.

However, a more subtle inquiry is to examine whether there is an aspect of our direct experience that doesn’t change, and thus is Timeless? The surprising and wonderful answer is Yes — although all sights, sounds, and sensations are changing within our field of experience, the “knowing aspect” of our experience does not change. Awareness is always Right Here. It doesn’t come from anywhere, and it doesn’t go anywhere.

Much like a still, silent and unchanging movie screen, we watch the dynamic movie of our lives appear and disappear on the silent, still, and spacious screen of sacred awareness.

When we explore this awareness, we find that it has no boundaries. It is limitless in all directions. We also discover that it does not come or go anywhere. It is changeless. And when we search for its origin we cannot find a single location where it begins, but paradoxically, it is located everywhere we look. With sustained practice, we can take the perspective of this field of awareness and “watch” the ever-changing, flowing stream of our minds. We can be fully aware of our own sacred display, magically appearing and disappearing. This is the perspective of The Witness– we are experiencing our own unique display, with a very subtle sense of self still operating.

If we rest into this witnessing perspective, with a mindset of infinite patience — without any expectations or efforts to change anything, without waiting for anything, and without trying to get anywhere, our very subtle sense of self will collapse. The Witness will disappear, and we realize that we are the entire field of awareness. We are Reality Itself, and we’ve been watching our own Minds all along. Every moment is a view into the Sacred Mirror of Unbounded Love, Joy, and Freedom — the Uni-verse (One Song) of the Infinite Deity.

All experience is the sacred synchronicity of the Wholeness of Being Yearning to Know Itself. This is Awakening.

This is the one continually unfolding gift of a Loving Reality; and when we openly and fully receive this gift, we have no choice but to radiate Joy for all Beings with boundless gratitude. May we all become vessels of awakening; receiving Divine Love and radiating Profound Joy to a Loving Universe. May this Freedom and Truth be heard, known, and embodied by All Beings.

Slowly but surely, day-by-day, we find our lives transforming as we live more and more often through the lens of a clear, open, and loving Mind.

02/23/2020

Here are my latest thoughts on the art of Receiving in our Lives. I hope you enjoy it. Comments are welcome.

Fran.

If what we receive is not fully appreciated and understood, then our acts of giving to others will be diminished and distorted.