EP 453: Yoga, Rock & Roll, and Trail Markers for our Lives

“I think it’s important to have some one thing you can work on, on a more or less daily basis, and be able to see improvement in your own terms that is a result only of your own energy being put into the thing… It keeps you centered to something.” -Jerry Garcia, 1976 TV Interview I’ll post the link below to this perhaps surprising interview. But this is what Jerry replied to the question that he has said before that music is his Yoga. The Yoga that most people in the West are familiar with is called Hatha Yoga. And it may surprise you to know that this is just one type or branch of Yoga. In fact, Yoga contains about 8 different methods or modalities, but the overall definition is really synonymous with what we call meditation. And mindfulness is a way to describe both formal and informal practices of meditation. The point being, as I say in today’s episode, that when we do this practice of mindfulness every day, it centers us to the principles of Presence, Acceptance, Compassion, and Curiosity. And when we center ourselves in this way, it’s like having trail markers for our lives. Because unless you’re living a monastic life, you can’t avoid the struggles and difficulties of the human experience. So when these struggles present themselves, if you’ve been practicing mindfulness ‘on a more or less daily basis’ you will always be able to center yourself to Presence, Acceptance, Compassion, and Curiosity and these will help you navigate difficulty with no additional, unnecessary suffering. Here are the links I promised you in today’s episode: The Learning to Surf Saturday Sit: https://www.meetup.com/learning-to-surf-talks-on-buddhism-meditation-mindfulness/events/qwblfsyccdbkc/ Here’s the link to The Learning to Surf Podcast (The new episode will drop today or tomorrow): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learning-to-surf-talks-on-buddhism-dharma-riding-waves/id1512499997 And if you’re interested in becoming a patron (there was one spot left in the upper tier at a lower price!) you can join here: https://www.patreon.com/artburns And here is that amazing interview with my old pal Jerry Garcia: https://youtu.be/80dcUvmVWzM