From the Cushion
Swami Chetanananda
The simplest thing to understand is, and it's really simple, we're in this world to grow. Every living thing in this world is here for that one reason. There's not two reasons, there's only one reason. We're here to grow.
Growing has nothing to do at all with getting what we think we want, nothing at all. Growing has to do with taking in energy from every circumstance, circulating it to release our boundaries and allow for the expansion of the respiratory process which is the essence of what we are. Take away respiratory process and you are dust...dust.
All the desires we have and all the fears and worries that we have are really only expressions of our limitations. Our limited ability to see and do. It's when we begin to make contact with that... [read more]
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Practice & Inspiration
Sadhvi Parananda
There is a wonderful and apt saying that I am reminded of several times per week:
You can have 40 years of experience,
OR
you can have 1 year of experience 40 years over.
How many times in our lives do we hear "That's not how I learned to do it?" Or, "I have been doing it like this for over twenty years." My first response often is something along the line that for the love of God, I guess we'd better not change now because change is B-A-D. How silly we sometimes are. Our systems, in general, greatly resist change. We don't like change in the equilibrium, the status quo, that we have established, even if we aren't happy with our present state. [read more]
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The Tantraloka of Abinavagupta
Guest Lectures by Professor Alexis Sanderson
The Movement Center is pleased to welcome Professor Alexis Sanderson to Portland, OR, as a guest lecturer.
Beginning in late March, Professor Sanderson will lead a lecture series in which he will read, translate, and explain the masterwork of the Tantrāloka, Abhinavagupta's monumental presentation of the doctrines and practices of the Śākta Śaiva Tantric system known as the Trika.
Information regarding the Part One of the series may be found on our website. If you are in the Portland area, you may attend an introductory lecture by Professor Sanderson on Wednesday, March 16th at 7pm, in which he will provide an overview of the text and its significance. No pre-registration is required for the March 16th session.
Professor Sanderson is the Spalding Professor Emeritus of Eastern Religions and Ethics in the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College in the same university. He is widely recognized as the world's leading authority on Śaivism and the Tantric traditions.
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