Well, I'm starting to feel a lot better.
I've long prided myself on my "fierce independence". Which is in some aspects pretty idiotic, and it took a serious crisis like my back condition this month to make me reconsider it for real. I was in such pain I begged for help from everybody and anybody. I've had help from nurses and doctors, healers, spiritual teachers, physio therapists and homeopaths, angels, and probably mice and cockroaches. And it's all helped.
All through it I felt that it was basically just a blip on the curve of what is otherwise a time of big expansion for me spiritually, the further development of which I'm much looking forward to.
Gee, you must have the Disney princess musical call to summon roaches and mice to your aid like in Enchanted.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're feeling better
Welcome "back"
ReplyDeleteHi Eolake,
ReplyDeleteI sent this via an old email address I had for you but am not sure you'll get it so here it is again. Just wanted to write a note wishing you the best on your recovery. I see Domai is no longer loading so you must be out for some time with your back problems. Believe me I sympathize. About 12 years ago I had back surgery to remove two discs (L4 L5-S1). If you can at all avoid it I urge you not to have surgery. My recovery took over a year. Like you, however, I found the whole ordeal a spiritually and physically strengthening experience. I got back into prayer and meditation and it's now a daily part of my life. I also do back exercises every day that I'm sure are helping my overall health as well as my back.
Hang in there. I'm sure you have many people praying for you, including me.
Hope you and your site are up and running again soon.
PG
"Eolake's Back!" Film at eleven.
ReplyDeletePG, Domai is operating normally now, maybe your browser is stuck on an old page.
ReplyDelete"and probably mice and cockroaches"
ReplyDeleteMan, you must've been really desperate! :-D
Being or feeling independant is pleasant. And being potentially capable of maximum self-sufficiency is always a useful trump to keep in your sleeve, in case for example you plane-crash on a desert island. (Which will no more be desert, once you're on it! But I digress.)
One of the greatest strengths we humans have, is the possibility to count on each other when one alone could not handle some things. Like a hungry cave wolf. Or simply being widowed. Radicalism is the main default in all attitudes, including even love. We all know that extremist love becomes possessive, which is very bad. And selfish.
"I got back into prayer and meditation"
Yes, sometimes yoga or martial arts just aren't adequate. Meditation's much safer for what you describe. ;-)
Indeed, daily back exercises do help, a lot. Keep at them, they're all benefit.
"Hope you and your site are up and running again soon."
Yeah, I bet Eolake really missed his daily morning marathon. ;-)
"Yes, sometimes yoga or martial arts just aren't adequate. Meditation's much safer for what you describe. ;-)"
ReplyDeleteI must take issue with you there. Actually, yoga is meditation. But the confusion is understandable. For some reason much of the western world incorrectly equates yoga with yoga asana practise. Asana practise is only one of the "eight limbs" of yoga practise. Here's a list of all eight.
(1) Yama (The five "abstentions"): nonviolence, truth, non-covetousness, chastity, and abstain from attachment to possessions.
(2) Niyama (The five "observances"): purity, contentment, austerities, study, and surrender to god
(3) Asana: Literally means "seat", and refers to seated positions used for meditation. Later, with the rise of Hatha yoga, asana came to refer to all the "postures"
(4) Pranayama ("Lengthening Prāna"): Prāna, life force, or vital energy, particularly, the breath, "āyāma", to lengthen or extend
(5) Pratyahara ("Abstraction"): Withdrawal of the sense organs from external objects.
(6) Dharana ("Concentration"): Fixing the attention on a single object
(7) Dhyana ("Meditation"): Intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation
(8) Samadhi ("Liberation"): Merging consciousness with the object of meditation
Each of these is one aspect of a rather complete meditative process. The process gradually leads the practitioner to a closer relationship with one's higher self. (I.e. the mother of all goals.)
Learning to interpret physical ailments, such as back pain, and correctly address to them, is only one of the many benefits one draws from the discipline.
TTL said...
ReplyDelete"I must take issue with you there. Actually, yoga is meditation."
Thank you for slightly decreasing my vast ignorance, wise guru master.
I stand corrected. :-)
Then I sit humbly corrected.
Then I cross my legs behind my shoulders, VERY corrected. (Ouch.)
I think I won't correct my spine in a bretzel shape right away. Um... is there a sailor expert in knots in the chat room?