A Place of Refuge
A Place of Refuge
Samaya in Sanskrit means "appropriate time, the moment ... the right time."
If you have found yourself waiting for the right time to begin a yoga practice, or start meditation, you've come to the right place. Because this is the right time, the appropriate time, right now. It is in this moment you have the ability to choose differently. It could be simply to buy a yoga mat, or download a meditation app, or read a book about someone else's spiritual path. Or, it could simply be taking this moment to look away from the screen, close your eyes, and take a deep breath.
When you enter this moment, now, you find a refuge, an infinite space of possibility where the entire world stills, and waits for you.
Samaya is an online presence dedicated to supporting anyone on this journey.
Sometimes, the spiritual path chooses you.
Manhattan, 1990s, the financial world. It was Top Gun rolled into Wall Street with a little Flashdance mixed in. Between chasing down opening night tickets, procuring coveted dinner reservations, and bribing doormen to skip the line into nightclubs, I worked 80 hour weeks. It was thrilling, addictive, and exhausting. One day, as I waited on the phone for yet another rezzie, it struck me, "this will never end." I hung up and cried. Shortly thereafter, I asked for a sabbatical from my lending job, started writing fiction and detoxed mentally and emotionally. I went and saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and took my first Tae-Kwon-Do class which left me humiliated and searching, until my chiropractor suggested Yoga.
I walked out of my first class feeling 3 inches taller and 100 lbs lighter, and that was just the weight lifted off my heart. The intense focus on doing new postures while breathing steadily cleared my mind, soothed my body, and opened my eyes to a new perspective of how to live life, And so, I took my first step on the spiritual path.
That lightness and wonder has never left me, and it is my hope to pass these on through Samaya by offering a fresh, spiritual perspective on everyday life. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity, and would not be here without the guidance of all my varied teachers, virtually, in-person and posthumously, including Leela, a stray Bengal cat who survived a rattlesnake bite.
I love them all.
A talk I gave at Boulder Insight Meditation Community on July 2, 2024 about compassionate effort, mindfulness, and concentration.
Two senior Integral Yoga Yogis discuss an article I wrote a while back for IYI Magazine, about simple approaches to relationships. This PODCAST covers how to be with four types of typical behaviors, happy, sad, virtuous and not-so-virtuous. The last is always a great discussion!
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