Inspiration - "Earth Gazing"

I moved to brooklyn a year ago, after having been an avid Manhattan-centrist for over a decade. The first few autumn nights, I found myself drawn to the rooftop of my building, where I can see the Manhattan skyline. I remember feeling that sense of wonder and beauty that I have also felt flying over Manhattan coming back home from a long trip. That feeling, as I was watching the lights flicker on to a steady glow in the darkening sky, made me realize that I could more fully appreciate Manhattan by being able to stand outside of it than I could by being in the frantic midst of it.

Today, I came across this spectacular video about astronauts' experience of being in space and looking back at the earth and experiencing a perspective shift that allows one to feel the magnitude and beauty of the earth by seeing it from a cosmic distance.

Known as 'the overview effect', this sudden recognition that we live on a planet which is a  living, breathing system, and that we are not separate from all that is a part of that living organism.

From space, certain boundaries dissapear, but the reports of the boundaries that are seen are those that we see from extraction and destruction practices.

Astronauts report experiencing a sense of oneness of being and ecstacy, of "samadhi" -- perceptual shift that produces a spiritual effect.

This month's Focus of the Month at Jivamukti Yoga School is about "moon language," looking at others through the eyes of love. If we look at all beings as if standing on the moon (seeing the whole) -- we will look at all beings as part of this complete, organic, fragile, complex system.