Eric Stoneberg

MRTYU KALI : “Convergence” – This Kali is a moment of convergence that stops time. Like when some fool posts on Facebook an embarrasing old photo of you from 1987 with braces and glasses and weird hair.  You step out of time for a second, recognize yourself, say “that’s me” and then you’re done. (Sometimes the act of REMOVE TAG completes the circuit.)

When an OBJECT merges into a SUBJECT time stops, dies, then flows again. This is an ordinary experience of, say, reading a novel. And these kinds of experiences of convergence tend to also evoke feelings of peace and ease. That’s why many people find reading to be relaxing before bed. And surely this is why, despite the madding crowds, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a wondrous sigh of relief – objects of beauty and fascination merge with subjects who see something of themselves IN those objects. All under one big glorious roof.

Deity meditation with mantra (subjects focused on objects) can also create access to time in ways that seem out of the ordinary. My own morning meditation was about 20 minutes, but I experienced it like hours. Wallace Stevens describes Mrytu Kali like this:

The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm

 The house was quiet and the world was calm.

The reader became the book; and summer night

Was like the conscious being of the book.

The house was quiet and the world was calm

The words were spoken as if there was no book,

Except that the reader leaned above the page,

Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be

The scholar to whom the book is true, to whom

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.

The house was quiet because it had to be.

The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:

The access of perfection to the page.

And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,

In which there is no other meaning, itself

Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself

Is the reader leaning late and reading there.

SAMHARA KALI : “Dissolution” – When you see one thing, you really see all the things it has ever been. The objects of experience are assemblages of other objects.

The oak floors upon which you stand were once an acorn. Sometimes I catch a glance of my 4 year old and see one of his grandparents. Once I was at Chipotle staring in revulsion at the steaming pork and heard the cry of squealing pigs at slaughter. (That was at the height of my vitamin deficient now defunct vegetarianism.)

Everything that is, was once something else. Samhara is the patron goddess of artful recycling. Like www.bennettrobotworks.com

YAMA KALI : “Restraint, Doubt” – As a practice, doubt puts you two steps ahead, not a step behind. Doubt allows you to see the same experience from different vantage points. Only when you say, “I don’t know” do you have the opportunity to grow and evolve.

Bring to mind some person in your life who KNOWS everything, who has an answer to every question, often before they’re asked. Or perhaps you know someone who ALWAYS expects the worst, in every case. “This is NEVER going to work out.” Ok, now that this person is in your mind, notice now how they are likely to be the most rigid, unhappy person you know. Just thinking about this person in my own life tightened my throat & jaw. NEVER & ALWAYS. Yama Kali refrains from these words as OFTEN as possible!

If you don’t give yourself permission to empower DOUBT, that is – say “I don’t know” sometimes, then doubt will turn into fear, anger and delusion. For example, “There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” See how quickly doubt turns to fear? Another interesting political strategy: repeat the same lies about your opponent over and over and over again so much that the lies become the truth. That’s delusion. 

It’s easy to see this in play on the political stage, but sometimes harder to see in your own life’s experience. Maybe, like me, you had a teacher in 3rd grade grade tell you, “You’ll never be able to play the violin.” Well I sure proved her right! We all have had well-meaning adults tell us lies about ourselves. And then her lie became my truth.

For a long time I told myself, “I have weak arms and shoulders. I just can’t do pull ups.” Now I’m not sure where this came from, perhaps exhaustive hours of swimming laps on my high school swim team. Regardless of its source, my affirmation I CAN”T became true for me. Recently I decided to give up that notion about my shoulders. I went from “my shoulders are weak, god I hate them” to “my shoulders are straight and strong. I shoulder my responsibilities with grace and ease.” And now I’m doing crazy pull ups and one armed push ups and all kinds of great things in my workouts I never dreamt possible. 

Take a cue from yesterday’s Kali and DESTROY something of yourself you’re certain of. Like me and my shoulders. See what happens when you turn your certainty into doubt. It’s a valuable practice. And I look forward to taking down other limited notions I have of myself in 2011. And I DON’T EVEN KNOW what they are yet! 

STHITINASHA KALI : “Stability Destroyer” – Please dissolve the notion that your life is stable. It’s not. This is good news in the new year, it means you can regenerate, evolve, become more.

The empowerment of this Goddess looks like the recent repeal of DONT ASK DONT TELL. She drives a wedge into the fabric of humanity for the sake of progress.

While many earthlings love to cling to the past and old ways of thinking, she ensures that that won’t do. 

Some more examples of Sthitinasha spring to mind – 

You might have thought you were stable in a 401K that now has half as much revenue as it had a few years ago. Time to create prosperity in a new way. 

This Kali is also like life with a toddler, just when you thought you knew how to handle them, they completely change again. 

Did you get the newest technology from Santa Claus? It’s already outdated.

My crossed leg just fell asleep as I was writing – wait a minute – it’s okay again.

This Kali dissolves the notion that you are stabilized in your experience.  

RAKTA KALI : “Tinted, Playful, Beloved, Dyed” – The light of Consciousness is tinted – by you. This Kali teaches that the spiritual path is not a treasure hunt, that everything you want you already have. So choose the thoughts that create the world you like to look at. 

Rakta Kali Affirmation for January 1, 2011 : “I am the star in my own movie. I am also the author and the director and the producer. I create wonderful roles for myself every day.”

SRSTHI KALI : “Creative Constraint” – You are not a bound being seeking freedom, you are a free being seeking bondage. This radical assumption empowers you to CHOOSE to bind yourself – to creativity, or anything else you desire. The creative universe freely chose to become you. The power of the entire universe constrained itself in your embodiment. Of all the wonderful things that the universe can do, it became you. And so your life is a free gift. Learning how to receive that gift and bind yourself to choices that create a world worth living in is SRSTHI. Can you thrive creatively in all the myriad ways that you are distinctively YOU? Can you cultivate a creative life with the ingredients you were gifted? Or do you focus on lack and what you don’t have? This Kali says, “Stop that nonsense.” She invites you to tap into your originality, “There’s more there under the surface than you’ll ever know. Courageously enter the darkness and tap the source of your life.” 

A simple Kali practice – Sit for a few minutes with your eyes closed. Follow the inhale as a means of descending into the darkness behind closed eyes. Focus your attention on the heart and inhale into that vast space. It’s bigger than you think. Boldly enter the unknown nooks and crannies of your own heart. 

When I saw this poster on the subway a couple weeks ago I got really excited:

No, not because I’m a boxing fan. But because this poster helped me recognize that my birthday this year is 1-11-11. That’s pretty darn cool! And there’s just something about this guy – that undaunted blue eye, the bloody temple & cheekbone, the beefy shoulder – I dig it. The overt violence of the image appeals to that feature of my consciousness that typically lies dormant in the context of teaching a heart-melting, life is good, take a breath yoga class. And so I’ve decided that 2011 is MY comeback year too. Lights Out. It’s KALI TIME.

For the next 12 days leading to my birthday I’m going to explore another set of Goddesses. 12 Kalis. They, like the Laksmis, are a process of yogic reflection. When does one turn to Kali for inspiration? Well, for starters, during moments of URGENCY and EMERGENCY. And in 2011 I’ve decided to make the DREAMS I’ve dared to dream my own URGENT business. 

Kali is also the Goddess one turns to to explore one’s ORIGINALITY. That is, what elements are already IN you that lie hidden in the dark? It’s sometimes scary to enter the darkness of the Self. But that’s where to good stuff is. Kali wants to take us there. I don’t know what I’ll discover over the next days leading to 1-11-11. And THAT is precisely what makes life so beautiful.

Here’s a Kali doll designed by my friend Sanjay Patel. If you don’t already know his awesome work, visit www.gheehappy.com

BHUVANESHWARI LAKSMI : “She Whose Arms Embrace the World” – May the potency of today’s solstice reverberate in your own heart, mind and expression! Bhuvaneshawari is one of my most favorite of Goddesses – and today I celebrate her with so much delight.

The Laksmi process I’ve been exploring over the past 15 days culminates here, with the 16th (!) Laksmi. It’s really a list of 15 Goddesses + 1. We live in such an abundant Universe that there’s always a bit extra, like Ikea furniture that comes with extra pieces not included in the directions! (My teacher Douglas’ example, but one I’ve experienced profoundly more than once.) The Shakta, or Goddess lineages, of tantric yoga always describe the Universe as self-generating, one in which there’s always MORE than the sum of all parts. And so we arrive at the solstice, a tipping point for more. 

Bhuvaneshwari is a goddess of such compassion, of such enormous spaciousness, that she embraces all humanity. She IS this blue pearl of a planet we call the EARTH. She is our home. Not only the physical earth, and so deeply grounding and fertile and diverse, she is also the SPACE which holds the planet’s evolution. She IS in fact, the evolution of the planet. In this way, she stands for our own evolution. She is the space into which we evolve. 

In order to evolve and prosper, we have to be willing to make messes and reflect so that we might thrive. The 16 Laksmi’s provide but one empowering roadmap for that kind of reflection and yogic engagement. They can be either an individual or more global map. In fact, the first 5 Laksmi’s teach us how to get better at being human, while the second set of 5 teach us how to get better at being ourselves. And the 3rd set combines those powers so that we’re good at being ourselves AND living in the world simultaneously! 

What makes you distinctly you? And how will you be authentic while participating in the greater context of humanity? These are the questions Laksmi invites us to deepen within ourselves. The process is the goal, the journey is the destination. The Earth spins asymmetrically on its axis toward ever more beauty and complexity. Let’s do THAT. Together. 

Mountains and Oceans of love to you this Winter Solstice! December 21, 2010. Mark it auspiciously and you BECOME the Laksmi – the mark of auspiciousness – you seek. 

AROGYA LAKSMI : “Peak of Health” – Go to the boundary of your own ecstacy – and allow others to do the same. This Goddess teaches that when you give yourself permission to spelunk the cave of your heart you enjoy radiant health! Tonight’s lunar eclipse marks the invitation to enter the darkness of Winter Solstice more powerfully than ever before in your lifetime.

Tonight’s practice, if you desire : Take a few minutes to soften, breathe in, and follow the inhale to descend into the dark cave of your heart – ask to align with the fertile creative energies that live undifferentiated in the darkness, in the unknown, in your own hidden recesses. Choose an affirmation to punctuate your experience in the dark. For example, “I am safe, and I am fulfilled in all that I do.” Or, “I am always in touch with my creative source.” Or, “My innate creativity surprises and delights me.” What will you affirm as our planet shifts boldly and dramatically into the Age of Aquarius?

SAMRAJYA LAKSMI : “Possessed of Soverignty” – What does it mean to be soverign? For some yogis, soverignty is a matter of control – and so to be a soverign yogi is to be a master and commander of one’s own consciousness. However, be careful. Paradigms of yogic dominance veer quickly toward dictatorships! And dictators last only as long as they are able to squelch the next revolt – which inevitably comes with great upheaval, violence and general distress – sooner or later. In contrast to the dictator model, the shaktas of my lineage look toward a “princely” model of soverignty. That is, soverignty NOT as a commanding and conquering model of power kingly power; but rather, soverignty as an EXPERIENCE of service and receptivity.

The best kinds of soverigns certainly know that they are ultimately in charge, just like the yogi who knows that life is a gift worth expressing well – that life is here to freely engage however one chooses. Princely soverigns rule not by dominating, but by serving their kingdom. And they know how to listen to a close company of royal advisers. (Make sure you listen to the voices of SUCCESS which surround you! Encircle yourself with a court of diverse, knowledgeable, joyful, thriving individuals. You ARE the company you keep!)  

If you’ve been following it over the past days, this list of Laksmis is like a roadmap toward ever more expansive auspiciousness. The Laksmis certainly unfold in a particular order, but they are not a vertical model of ascendent achievement. Too much of yoga in the west is presented in this way for my taste, “Let’s take it to the next level!” What if “the next level” weren’t the achievement of the thing you don’t or can’t do yet, but instead was the deepening appreciation of the life you’re actually already living? It’s incredibly satisfying to stick a new pose, to achieve a goal in your life you worked at. I love that too. Alot. But there’s much MORE than the consumptive processes in which we  ”climb the ladders of life.” 

The things that are the most valuable are the things we do over and over again, like loving our children – or cooking dinner. The Laksmis then are like a garland of recursiveness. They circle and weave. They are not a ladder to climb. Samrjya Laksmi is a state of consciousness in which one is BEING possessed of soverignty. In other words, any moment in your day when you know that you know your life is serving you and those you love well, you’re SOVERIGN.