Wake Up Call
Go Fly a Kite
Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but...life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.
Wake Up Call
On Becoming
As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become.
~ Jean-Paul Sartre
Wake Up Call
On Tracking
If you are...very anything negative, tracking even a mediocre variable will help you develop awareness that leads to the right behavioral changes.
Finding Beauty
The Beauty of Connection
Once upon a time there was an exquisitely beautiful woman named Sita, whose looks and graciousness inspired passion in every creature who encountered her. Sita, however, was madly in love with her partner, a powerful and righteous king named Rama, who was equally crazy about her. One day, as they played and picnicked with their attendants in the flower-dotted fields near where they lived, Sita wandered into the nearby forest to find a little shade. From the treetops, a demon by the name of Ravena, who was obsessively in love with Sita watched… waited…and then leapt down, scooping up Sita and whisking her away to the island of Lanka where he hid her deep inside his walled-in kingdom.
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Wake Up Call
On Bearing a Hard Thing
Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.
Wake Up Call
On Duty and Health
To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.
Wake Up Call
On Art and Fighting
When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.
Wake Up Call
On Character
Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
Wake Up Call
A Journey of One Inch
And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.
Finding Beauty
The Goddess who Pauses to Speak
Pause for a split second. Now say what you wanted to say – clearly, concisely, and artfully. Within that tiny suspended moment, your breath shifts, your thoughts coalesce, your mind hovers between this and that, now and then, and finally chooses its self-expression. That moment contains a particular power. Its name is Bagalamukhi.
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Finding Beauty
Making the Pilgrimage
It was Christmas, and I was zip-zagging across the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu in a bus filled with about 25 other people. Led by my teacher, renowned Tantric scholar Dr. Douglas Brooks, we were on pilgrimage to the six primary temples of Shiva’s son Subrahmanya, a fierce warrior known for his multi-faceted and diverse self. Thus the many temples. Although I missed my family, I had made the choice for the second time in three years to have what we now referred to as “Susanna’s Hindu Christmas.”
A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place to connect and pay homage. The outer journey will ideally run parallel to an inner journey that may shuffle and shift our way of looking at the world. Each Subrahmanya temple we visited engaged us through its own distinctive personality, eliciting those same qualities within us. Tiruchendur seduced us into a dark crowded interior, churned us through its dense corridors, and then released us ecstatically onto the beach to wade in the ocean. Palani beckoned to us to climb its 650-some steps to the top of a mountain, where it offered an expansive clear healing sensation that one can only find on a mountaintop. Swamimalai sweetly invited us in and coaxed us gently into conversation. And so on…
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Marketing Triumphs
Lebron's Workout Playlist
Straight from the Equinox Battlestar via panting press release: Lebron James's workout playlist! That's right, Equi got Lebron (or Lebron's handlers) to create a workout playlist just for them, and the proper way to listen to said playlist turns out to be while wearing Dr. Dre's trademarked over-the-ear headphones, "Beats by Dr. Dre." Mad props to the Equinox marketing axis for opportunistic deal making, (despite any obvious sign of real hip hop street cred around the club.) They're on a roll over there. This is the same marketing department whose latest billboard campaign puts David Barton to shame: Half naked models in bed wearing stilettos and fondling a Polaroid cameras. "What are they thinking?" asked one appalled Equi yoga teacher to an SW operative. "They're dishing out cheeseburgers, and I'm serving up filet mignon. But I want a raise, so I'm not going to say anything." Ah, capitalism. So, right, click through Lebron's playlist....
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Inspiration
Jack LaLanne: 1914 - 2011
When he turned 60, he swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, with both hands and feet tied, and pulling a 1,000 pound dinghy. Tweny years later, Outside magazine profiled him at 81, declaring he was still an animal. I was inspired by that piece, remembered watching him on TV as a kid, and had secretly begun to believe that Jack LaLanne might keep right on going forever.
In the end, it wasn't a heart attack that got him, but pneumonia. He was 96, upbeat to the end, and at home in Moro Bay, CA with his wife Elaine of 51 years.
He was going strong to the end, touting the benefits of raw fruits and vegetables and hawking his latest project: the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. When NPR's Tom Goldman caught up with Jack in 2004, at 89, he found him working out in the pool at 7AM: ""I usually hit the gym around five or six in the morning," he quipped. "To leave a hot bath, leave a hot woman, go into a cold gym takes a lot of discipline, boy I'll tell ya. ... I never liked to exercise, but I like results."
Thanks for the inspiration, Jack. May we all get as far as you did, and with some of that old school attitude.
Finding Beauty
On Habit and Ritual
This morning I made my tea, as I do most mornings, and sat down to think about what new habits and rituals to establish in the New Year. Our lives are filled with rituals and habits, and it's interesting to discern between the two. A habit is a recurring pattern of behavior, conscious or unconscious. A ritual is a symbolic action that marks an occasion or confers significance. The line delineating one from the other can be fairly blurry, but ritual should create meaning in your life. Preparing my tea and sitting to think is a habit that gives me pleasure, but it doesn’t necessarily have meaning beyond that satisfying moment. In contrast, here is an example of a ritual...
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You Wrote We Like
Ride the Zone R.I.P.
Have been a Marion fan since the very beginning days above Calypso and watched her evolve into one of the best spin instructors in NYC and Easthampton. The closing of the Easthampton studio in two weeks will mark the end of an era. Made a lot of good friends there and burned through tens of thousands of calories. Marion, I wish you well, my friend! But am going to miss RTZ terribly.
New York
Wake Up Call
On Food and Poetry
Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry.
