Wandering on the seashore recently, I found myself picking up beach glass. That isn't unusual, but I don't really plan to do it. Over the years I have filled a few bowls and small crystal vases with the sand-blasted bits of green, brown, white, blue, and (the extra-special) lavender remnants. Their role in my house is to imbue small spaces with the essence of the ever-changing seaside.
My eyes scanned the areas where glass settles, always among pebbles of similar, pinky nail-size, and on the o...
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The fifth yama is aparigraha, non-grasping.

The impermanence of all things is a fact of life. Even so, we occupy ourselves – almost incessantly – with thoughts and actions that reflect our goals to acquire things and create conditions that we want to claim as ours. We want to have and to hold, forever and ever. Amen. So be it.
Buddhist teachings tell us that suffering – dukkha – is caused by this very human trait: clinging to the idea, the hope, of love (or whatever you want to call it)...
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When the fourth yama, brahmacharya, was discussed in yoga teacher training it was presented as practicing "sexual celibacy". This, of course, brought up the following questions: "What's wrong with having sex with someone you love?" And, "Sex is a natural human function, like eating - why should it be repressed?"
Looking into the tenet in more depth, it seems it isn't that simple. While there are yogi saints who live and have lived in renouncement of sensual pleasures and physical possessions, ...
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