dedication & connection: practising our place in the world
In the seven-season indigenous calendar of the Kulin people, we’ve reached into Poorneet, tadpole season. In this lens on the world, there are consistent, clear connections between land, people and planet. Everything is interconnected, and names are given not to divide, but to draw attention to the indivisible force linking seemingly separate elements.
It is a gaze aligned with the practice of yoga: to shed that which walls us from ourselves and each other. As Rumi says, so simply and eloquently:
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Our whole body is an ecosystem. Widening out, this estuary community, and the communities you each partake in, is an ecosystem. The cities we share. The countries we reside within. The Earth - one intricate fabric of colourful threads, none of which are un-belonging.
When we come onto our mats, it is not just a way to remedy the tension, the stress, the whatever-is-happening-which-feels-uncomfortable. It is not an ‘escape’. It is a commitment to our spirit, our minds, our bodies: I am present, right here, dedicated to the practice of offering attention - the most valuable and powerful tool we have in shaping the experience of our lives.
We cannot be compassionate and courageous if we are lost in despair or conflict. Amongst the angst of so many difficulties facing our shared world, including the resurgence of unforgiving wars in Israel and the hovering weight of the Voice to Parliament referendum this weekend - the importance of this presence cannot be underestimated.
When we offer attention to the present moment, we develop the capacity to grow increasingly aware of our own values. We can thus act more in accordance to that which roots us to our true nature: the ground of spacious awareness and pure, joyful abiding presence.
Our mats are a laboratory. We are both scientist and experiment. Whatever we practice, will get stronger. Are you strengthening patterns of separation, judgement, scattering focus - or can we come together, and unite this breath, this moment, to harness attention back to now?
Here, in a body, is the only place we get to truly live. Let's keep moving together, and breathing together on our different yet connected journeys.