Devotion

When we started to talk about the heart chakra I knew I may get emotional.   I was pretty sure it was going to get deep, intense and powerful.   At this point with the practice I am open and ready and want to keep going deeper so come what may I’m listening.  I came here to get direct knowledge from Tim Miller who every days comes to spend the day with us from 6 am to pretty much 6 pm and if he is teaching a class after our normal session then it’s till 7 or 7:30 pm.  He puts in the hours with us and is showing a lot of love to us all.  He’s so amazing at this and it all comes so natural to him.  He temperament is calm, loving, patient and he is full of the knowledge and he shares stories with us openly holding nothing back it seems.

Tim enjoys discussing Vedic astrology with us and since Friday is linked with the planet Venus it is a day of Bhakti and Devotion.  By now we know what this means as the harmonium is situated to be used so we are going to get to do some chanting together.    The heart chakra is called the Anahata chakra and this means unstruck wheel.  I looked this up to see if I could find a good translation of this and found it in a yoga journal article as follows, “unstruck or unhurt.  Its name implies that deep beneath our personal stories of brokenness and the pain in our heart, wholeness, boundless love , and a wellspring of compassion reside.”

We had just come through a good hour going over kapotasana so we have all been tapping into this center.  It was like we were so ripe for the discussion when we returned from a break.  We all tried to open he heart.   As we went on to discuss the heart charka as an energy body Tim said that although we would like to open the heart it cannot be done by force.   So how does one open the heart?  We all sat thinking and said things like grace, gratitude, devotion and compassion is what we are looking to cultivate deeply.   Gratitude helps to develop grace and gratitude cultivates devotion.  The chant we do everyday puts us in reminder of that.

Tim’s life must have gone in a whole new direction the day he found the practice or the practice found him.   When he talks about Pattabhi Jois, his eyes are bright and full of love and full of gratitude.    It’s amazing and beautiful to experience.  He talks about the first days when his teachers in California told him that Guruji was coming for three months to teach that first time 1975.  When I experience Tim’s teaching I fell like he is the embodiment of Guruji and the closest I can come to the source.  What struck the heart chakra today was when Tim spoke of Guruji and how it was possible to do what he did for so long.   He spoke of how he loved to teach the students and how teaching was what he lived for.   It was when he could no longer teach that he could not last much longer in his body and passed.   As Tim said, it’s that divine love and devotion that is the ojas (vigor or fluid of life) and the long burning fuel for the practice.   Guruji’s devotion was the long burning fuel for teachning.

Tim & Deb Friday 1st week