Compassionate Rebel

By: Gwendolyn Alley aka Art Predator

Oct 05 2012

Tags: An Lac Buddhist Mission Ventura, hip replacement surgery, mental-health, Sally McNally, Yoga

Category: Photography

3 Comments

Hard is it to be born a man;
hard is the life of mortals.

Hard is it to gain the opportunity
of hearing the Sublime Truth,
and hard to encounter
is the arising of the Buddhas.

Dhammapada 18201

Every Friday, Sally McNally teaches one of the best yoga classes in the county–and she does it for free. Any money collected at the class she donates to the An Lac Buddhist Temple located on the corner of Saticoy Avenue and Darling in east Ventura, California.

Sally often jokes how hard it is to do yoga–but how much harder it is to have hip replacement surgery! She would know–Sally is a trained nurse and midwife (as well as a licensed Realtor.

Since I went to class today, my hips feel good, my shoulders much better, and my circulation is flowing.

I am still struggling with how hard it is to be human. I’m having a tough day, a day full of questions, regrets, headaches, sorrow. What I am doing with my life?  I feel drugged, and I don’t see my path, my dharma–I am being drugged along and I don’t know where I am going. I want the opportunity to hear the Sublime Truth, but I fear I am asleep and can’t arise to encounter the Buddhas.

Namaste.

Read more about Sally’s yoga class at the temple.

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