I planned to take the day off, mostly because I'd had a few classes in a row and could, and because the Rockets were playing at the same time yoga class started. Then I heard that Yao Ming was out for the season, but it was too late to get to class, so I decided to sit down and watch them get killed. Instead, they ended up playing probably their best game of the season, and it was a really good team performance, something that is getting rarer and rarer in basketball.
The Day 129 meditation introduces the four aims of life: dharma, artha, kama, and moska. At this point, I pretty much want Gates to start talking about asanas, and this feels a bit like a detour. But I guess I'm willing to go wherever he's driving.
Dharma is spiritual balance, and it comes largely through observance of the yamas and niyamas. Artha is external balance, or physical balance. Kama is basically reaping the rewards, enjoying the fruits of one's labors. I'm assuming this comes later in life, but that's not made clear. And finally, moska is liberation. And liberation comes with letting everything go. I'm assuming there will be further discussion of each of these aims, since Gates says very little about any of them in this meditation.
Also, for this meditation, and the next three in a row, Gates opens with the same quote from Albert Einstein. I'm not sure yet why he considers this quote so important, but since he does, I will reproduce it here:
"A hundred times a day I remind myself that my life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give, in measure as I have received, and am still receiving."
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