The wild within

Reading from Tuesday, January 24, 2012 yoga class

"Zen Buddhists have a gesture called Gassho, putting their two hands together, palm to palm, and bowing.  The two hands represent the mountain and the valley, their separateness, the left and right, good and evil, the pirate and the girl, day and night, the doe and the coyote, life and death.  Bringing hands together symbolizes the fact that all seeming dualities are one.  Bowing recognizes and expresses gratitude to that fundamental nature of oneness.  To me, that oneness is the wild within, although in reality, it's as much out there in the universe as it is within us.

We all have moments when we are absolutely present, alive, and awake.  But what does it mean on a daily basis to live the wild within?  For me it means to live fearlessly.  To have no abode, because every place is home.  To have no face, because you wear every face.  To be nothing because you are everything.  To have no path because you walk all paths and know that every path is the wrong path and the right path at the same time.  It means to have no religion because you accept and have compassion for all religions.  It means to have no color and to be brown, white, black, yellow all at the same time.  Perhaps, most of all, it means to be humble--to have a sense of humor about yourself and your life."

                                                  From the book, The Wild Within, by Paul Rezendes

Gassho, Namaste, Amen... hands placed at the heart.  It doesn't matter what you call it... it all means the same thing... honoring yourself, honoring those around you.