In revealing myself both to the world and myself another layer of my individuality that feels both tender and vulnerable to the light.

The ancients and evolution both are active within me.

What will I do with this important knowledge?
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This Image "Untitled". Woman Standing With Core Mudra. Elena Ray Copyright 2008. Photo based illustration.

I'm spilt out. The cup is broken. ___________________________________________________________________________ This Image "untitled-nude on cracked earth" Elena Ray Copyright 2008

I vow to live with a ferocious spirit and a gentle heart. _________________________________________________________________________ Photo Montage Nude with Alan Watts book and Chinese calligraphy strokes. This Image "The Book" ElenaRay Copyright 2008. _________________________________________________________________________

Working. Answering. Watching: the enormous blossoms on my ancient Yuccas opening. I bought a piece of art...People I've known have died. Never take for granted even one moments connection to another. Out of the 6.6 billion people in the world, how many will you actually have the opportunity to share a moment with? Everybody we meet is a living message; break the seal.

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This Image "Wabi Sabi Collage" Elena Ray Copyright 2008. From a Lensbaby photograph of an Ikebana arrangement. 11" x 17" Pigment ink print on Ink Aid prepped Asian paper with Asian paper collage elements.

"Three thousand years ago yoga started with one meditative pose, Easy Lotus. The word asana originally meant "meditative posture". Then the masters introduced Cobra Pose to keep the spine flexible. In their quest for physical health they developed the eight most important poses to insure the health of the body and the glands. From there it grew. Even today dozens of new poses are created each year by true yogis all over the world. There are many different schools, each with their own variations, but basically all yoga comes from the same set of classic asanas. In the 35 years I have been teaching I have developed many poses, but in yoga no one puts his or her name on a pose because in reality I didn't do anything. I am just a body through which intuition has passed. "
Dharma Mittra
Asana 608 Yoga Poses

This Image "Yoga Compass Pose Variation" Elena Ray Copyright 2008. Corie Angel in yoga posture variation of Compass or Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana. Scan of alternative photography print : Pigment Ink on Ink Aid coated acrylic treated watercolor paper.
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It seems strange to think that by opening the body one opens the mind. With asana practice you're playing at your edge, both physically, and psychologically. I think that is one of the reasons yoga is so exciting to me. You use your body as a medium to grapple physically with your brain, your thoughts, your entropy, your fear. You don't always have to think things through. Your story is all there contained in your tissues. It's so close, so intimate...and then you begin to open up, and lighten up. The stories are released from the fibers of your being, literally. And it makes a difference. You feel alive. Clean fresh energy flows through you flushing out petrifying conditions you may have thought were you.

She said he never felt taken advantage of despite his generosity. She said he gave himself gifts he could then share. He takes care of himself...then generates circuits of good vibrations.
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This Image "Prayer Dreamer" Elena Ray Copyright 2008. I called her the Prayer Dreamer. He said she was dreaming all the world's prayers. A Madonna surrounded by a string of tattered Tibetan prayer flags, wrapped in a cocoon of silk, resting on a desert sand dune. The yin feminine, absorbing, creating...

"In the desert of wait ting/ting ~

no/one gets anything ~

i beg you to give me leave ~

do not bury me even as your kingdom ~

goes temple to journey ~

leave no space ~

in your little boat ~

to pass from life to life and life ~

be content w/ this letter ~

and a handful of feathers ~

do not rescue me ~

i crave another destiny ~

the ghosts of our love ~

are drying ~

or dying ~

or worse" ~



Patti Smith

"Babel"

_______________________________________________________________________This Image "Seeker of the Mirage". Elena Ray Copyright 2008. Or journey
of the lost soul...I guess every day is a failure. I fail to live up to
my own life. But I will die trying! I'm ready to make a leap of
consciousness. The old struggles are no longer interesting. They do not
engage my mind. My energy passes through them-they are mirages. I once
sought big monuments of proof that I existed-no more. For me going
deeper is better. Deeper insight is all that I seek...and a beautiful
cup to drink from.

Just arrived and feeling I like this place! I have a blog at http://elenaray.typepad.com/ which I'll try to keep udated here as I explore Gaia.