Hi yogi and yogini friends! As most of you probably know, my mommy was in California this weekend, attending (and teaching a yoga class!) at the Science and Nonduality Conference. I heard her talking this morning about how inspiring the conference was, but I have to say that from where I stand on my little Chihuahua feet, I witnessed a profound shift in my mommy. And what was this profound shift, you might ask?

Apparently, for random, bizarre reasons yesterday, my mommy missed her flight back home. Now I've been rushed out of the house enough to know that my mommy is normally a very punctual person and that being late drives her batty. Well, you should have seen how calm and even blissful she was when she finally got home at 1am this morning! I know this is hard to believe since most of you see her in her yoga-mode, but I've been around long enough to know that in the past, this situation would have caused my mommy to come home frustrated and grumpy.

So what brought about this wonderful shift, I wondered? This morning when my mommy and I sat down together to meditate, it all became clear. The whole concept of nonduality is that of tapping into pure Consciousness, that big ball of Love that makes up everything and everyone, and realizing that we are all connected. Being a yoga-dog, I feel this oneness and love all the time; it tends to be you humans who create those illusions of separation: "us" versus "them," "inside my mind" versus "out there," and every other wacky form of separation you manage to come up with. But after the conference and really experiencing this pure, absolute Love, my mommy was in a very different place for her meditation this morning, and it was delightful!

She was finally experiencing something that we dogs (and maybe even a kitty-cat here and there!) experience all the time: the perfect peace that comes from being present. Now this is a biggie! I invite you to take a lesson from this yoga-dog and give it a shot, too. Just for a moment, close your eyes and see if you can move your consciousness to just one second ago or one second from now. Nope. If you're conscious, it's going to be right here. Now try to see if you can move your consciousness to some other place over "there." Nope. You can't do it because as soon as you move your consciousness "over there," now your consciousness is here where the "there" had been!

Through this exercise, it becomes apparent that past, future, out there, in here are all just concepts; the only thing that's real is your Consciousness of this present moment. That Consciousness is a profound experiencing of this moment. So, you begin to intimately experience this moment, right here and right now. You begin to intimately know and appreciate this moment, right here and right now. This is pure Consciousness; this is Love, and it is the substance of everything.

It seems like so much of what we do in life is geared towards finding love or searching for happiness. What an amazing gift it is to know that this love and joy that we search for is present in this moment, right here and right now! We don't have to fulfill any desires in order to be happy, we don't have to do anything or get anywhere. This week, practice this exercise in being present, loving this moment, and feel the Love and the Joy that are always with you because they are the substance of the Universe and they are you. In other words, absolutely everything that is, including you, is made up of pure Consciousness, pure Love, so experience that Love right now!

Namaste,
Tiki