Absorbed in Delight
One of Joan’s great gifts as a guide and mentor was her ability to demystify the teachings by grounding them in the practical, making them relevant to our everyday struggles and by challenging our assumptions of how “it” should be or how “it” should look. She presented a heart-centered approach to non-duality, an embracing of […]
Frosted Glass
A little note scribbled in one of Joan’s journals: All traditions are like looking through a frosted glass window—there’s the Buddhist design, the Yoga design, the Christian design—and what we see is the pattern superimposed on the glass. With luck, one sees between the frosted parts through the glass to the great Vastness beyond, but […]
When this body goes, does This go?
Below is a partial transcript of a conversation between Joan and I on the topic of her death, with her typical blend of matter-of-factness, insight, irreverence and compassion. Love, Kathleen The body is here and This is here – both/and… Both you are over there and there is one alive-space of us, and the room, […]
The Everyday Miracle
The Pathless Yoga newsletter is dedicated to sharing the wisdom of Joan Ruvinsky, now in the form of transcriptions and recordings of her practices and talks, offered during her retreats, classes and seminars, along with information about upcoming Pathless Yoga gatherings and retreats. The text below is part of a dialogue from her last retreat […]
The Gravitational Pull of Love
There are privileges in life that one would not choose, given the choice. The notion of choice, itself, reveals the misidentification with oneself as a “chooser” who gets to decide the outcome of life’s unfolding. Nevertheless, thus far, the greatest privilege of this lifetime was caring for Joan during her body’s long period of transition. […]
Approaching the Finish Line
And now there is the brilliance – the brilliance – as things begin to reveal their inner light. And now also the shadow, no longer lurking – how everything is present without praise or apology – And so the bottom line turns out to be the radical acceptance of the unacceptable and equally well the […]
The Last Time
You never know if this is going to be the last time, the last holiday season, the last menstrual period, the last trip to the mountains, the last whatever. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if, for instance, it were just the last time you were ever to put gas in the car, except, […]
Passing the Torch
One of the things that popped out of my mouth near the end of a recent satsang here in my home was that we are like a forest, there are little trees with trunks the diameter of a few centimeters, big, leafy trees with huge trunks, and fallen logs composting back into the ground. And as the […]
This Dying Business
This dying business is very interesting. First of all, one never knows how long it will last – six months? a year? two? – thus shining quite a bright light on the present moment, if it was not there already. Second of all, absolutely nothing has changed and nothing is changing and never will. And […]
Living in the Unknown, Part 2
Still living in the unknown, dancing on the high-wire of plans and no-plans. At either end of the wire, the stability of Home, to either side, the spaciousness of Home. Somewhere in between there is the condition alternating between “I-can’t-make-plans-because-of-my-uncertain-health,” and “Carry on, regardless.” I notice out the second floor window, a cable company technician […]