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From the Foreword
Over the years I've witnessed a remarkable transformation. I've been fortunate to know Lilias as she has become yoga. I'm not speaking about the TV personality, the teacher, the writer, the woman, the daughter, the sister, the mother, the wife, or the friend. I'm talking about the one who is living behind and within all these roles; the one I call a spiritual sister; the one I've had the privilege of knowing for almost thirty years; the one I've traveled and taught with from California to Assisi, Italy. And the one with whom I've shared the joys of this journey of life through its many challenges of raising a family, teaching, and walking this precious path called yoga.
I've seen Lilias transform from being a teacher of yoga into being embodied as yoga. Lilias isn't practicing or teaching yoga anymore, she's being yoga. Lilias has become what yoga preaches; she is meditation in action. It's not that moments of confusion, restlessness, or anxiety have altogether disappeared. Something much deeper has transpired. Lilias has grown into being the amazing secret that yoga reveals. We call it the Open Secret because it's available to everyone, yet most of us don't recognize it even when we're experiencing it. It's like a great elephant that's resting quietly in our living room, but for some odd reason, we don't see it. Well, Lilias has!
And what is this secret? Lilias has stopped pretending that she should be someone else. Lilias knows hers inner witness that is without judgment, that knows and sees and accepts everything as it is and everyone just as they are. She has arrived at the center of this hurricane called life. Here, life continues,thoughts keep coming, but Lilias knows herself as stillness, the inner spiritual essence that we all are, that knows no lack or separation. Here, as Buddha so eloquently said, is the end of suffering. Lilias knows what life is truly about. She is living as the mystery from which everything is born and back into which everything dies. For most of us, stillness lives as an essence that is in the background of our lives, seldom noticed. But for Lilias, it's in the foreground, big time.
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This book is Lilias sharing her remarkable journey with us. It's not just her journey; it's ours, too. The ancient wisdom of yoga invites us, "Keep going. Stop not until the work is done." This book is Lilias's way of extending just such an invitation to us. She is someone who doesn't stop, who keeps going and who is saying, "If I can do it, so can you."
Some people say that it takes courage to speak as Lilias is doing. I say it's the only thing that she can do. When we're true to ourselves, when we stop separating from what we know we need to do and say, we become the secret that Lilias is being; where we truly live from the heart of wisdom that comes with age. Just so, yoga is likened to being the two wings of a bird. One wing is love and the other is wisdom. Without either wing, this yoga bird can't fly and neither can we. It's delightful to witness Lilias in full flight with her two wings outstretched, saying to life, "Yes!" Listen now as she invites us to stretch our wings and say to life from the bottom of our hearts, "Yes!"
Richard Miller, Ph.D.
Sebastopol, December 1, 2004
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Lilias! Yoga Gets Better with Age
By Folan, Lilias
Rodale Books
Copyright © 2005
Folan, LiliasAll right reserved.
ISBN: 159486070X
From the Foreword
Over the years I've witnessed a remarkable transformation. I've been fortunate to know Lilias as she has become yoga. I'm not speaking about the TV personality, the teacher, the writer, the woman, the daughter, the sister, the mother, the wife, or the friend. I'm talking about the one who is living behind and within all these roles; the one I call a spiritual sister; the one I've had the privilege of knowing for almost thirty years; the one I've traveled and taught with from California to Assisi, Italy. And the one with whom I've shared the joys of this journey of life through its many challenges of raising a family, teaching, and walking this precious path called yoga.
I've seen Lilias transform from being a teacher of yoga into being embodied as yoga. Lilias isn't practicing or teaching yoga anymore, she's being yoga. Lilias has become what yoga preaches; she is meditation in action. It's not that moments of confusion, restlessness, or anxiety have altogether disappeared. Something much deeper has transpired. Lilias has grown into being the amazing secret that yoga reveals. We call it the Open Secret because it's available to everyone, yet most of us don't recognize it even when we're experiencing it. It's like a great elephant that's resting quietly in our living room, but for some odd reason, we don't see it. Well, Lilias has!
Andwhat is this secret? Lilias has stopped pretending that she should be someone else. Lilias knows hers inner witness that is without judgment, that knows and sees and accepts everything as it is and everyone just as they are. She has arrived at the center of this hurricane called life. Here, life continues, thoughts keep coming, but Lilias knows herself as stillness, the inner spiritual essence that we all are, that knows no lack or separation. Here, as Buddha so eloquently said, is the end of suffering. Lilias knows what life is truly about. She is living as the mystery from which everything is born and back into which everything dies. For most of us, stillness lives as an essence that is in the background of our lives, seldom noticed. But for Lilias, it's in the foreground, big time.
fs20
This book is Lilias sharing her remarkable journey with us. It's not just her journey; it's ours, too. The ancient wisdom of yoga invites us, "Keep going. Stop not until the work is done." This book is Lilias's way of extending just such an invitation to us. She is someone who doesn't stop, who keeps going and who is saying, "If I can do it, so can you."
Some people say that it takes courage to speak as Lilias is doing. I say it's the only thing that she can do. When we're true to ourselves, when we stop separating from what we know we need to do and say, we become the secret that Lilias is being; where we truly live from the heart of wisdom that comes with age. Just so, yoga is likened to being the two wings of a bird. One wing is love and the other is wisdom. Without either wing, this yoga bird can't fly and neither can we. It's delightful to witness Lilias in full flight with her two wings outstretched, saying to life, "Yes!" Listen now as she invites us to stretch our wings and say to life from the bottom of our hearts, "Yes!"
Richard Miller, Ph.D.
Sebastopol, December 1, 2004
Continues...
Excerpted from Lilias! Yoga Gets Better with Age
by Folan, Lilias
Copyright © 2005 by Folan, Lilias.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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