Throw Up and Bow

It means that all day you can bow to everything. Bhakti yoga is a pathless path – you’re devoted to whatever is around you, to whatever is arising. That’s why it important not to bow from your neck – that’s Facebook bowing – but from the deepest part of the belly. Bowing practice is like throwing up. You throw up everything you know. It’s existential bulimia. The transverse abdominus hollows out, then the roof of the mouth hollows and the soft palette lifts. It’s the same pattern as throwing up. What are you throwing up? Dualistic ideas. - Michael Stone, Beginner’s Mind 6, Throw Up and Bow

This morning I honored the energy arising, Michael’s spirit. I brushed my teeth, brewed my espresso and sat on my cushion. Michael advocated for this type of sitting practice: right when you wake up and I think he would have skipped the teeth brushing. He told us his son learned to make his espresso for him, too. (smiling remembering)

These practices are trainings in not knowing, in being in a constant state of inquiry or engagement with what is arising. On the path to inquiry, what we know we know can get in the way or can create the sensation of “stuckness”. One of the bravest acts is acknowledging the limits of one’s knowing, because it opens into this state of uncertainty or perceived instability and risk. This state is living or vitality, because the natural state of things is constant change.

Consider throwing up and bowing this morning.