Articles

“Each of you is perfect the way you are … and you can use a little improvement.”   ― Shunryu Suzuki  Happy new year, we say, as the earth, at a hundred thousand miles an hour, whips a full ellipse around the sun. Happy new day, headlines claim, in whatever side sees the starshine and billions … Continued

We end our year by stumbling down the Path of Rock’n’Roll. Loud, messy, unapologetic…this particular path, a CEC favourite, leads us towards a freedom that comes from gleefully subverting societal expectations and embracing ridiculous, transformative, transcendent expressions. We crowd-sourced the newsletter to form a collage of inspiration culled from the rock’n’roll souls of various CEC teachers and facilitators. Here’s what this rocky path means to us

As we practice, we gradually discover what this core orientation is for us. It need not be simple, it can be multifaceted and hard to pin down. In the yoga tradition, this ideal is known as the Ishta Devata, the desired/chosen deity. For atheists, this doesn’t have to be thought of as anything supernatural, it can be anything you personally see as having ultimate value. It might be the pursuit of truth through rigorous skeptical inquiry, the promotion of human flourishing, or the cultivation of beauty through art.

As we come into relationship with an ideal through our practice, we may find that it is not simply a goal to be attained but also something we love for its own sake. That love for one’s ideal can be transformative in itself. In the yogic tradition, the love a seeker feels for their ideal is called bhakti, which is translated at devotion. Bhakti/devotion is a special kind of a love directed not toward mundane pursuits and ordinary relationships, but instead toward something higher, whatever that might be for you.