There have been great schisms within and between
yoga and Buddhism at various times.
Yet there have been other times when
there has been tremendous intermixing.
Yoga and Buddhism are big umbrellas,
and through the centuries there have been
wide interpretations of both of them. As a result,
I would point the student to knowing
and trusting their own experience.

Phillip Moffitt
quoted by Andrea Miller
Shambhala Sun, July 2008

I

Now,
how to climb down from the high horse she'd climbed on?
"The pain of wounds can cause the mind to build barriers
that protect it from going near the scene of the wounding,
lest more hurt happens." Arlu began the letter with this quote.
"I'm not sure how wounds heal, except that time helps."¹
Trite, she thought, but true.
 

She writes and then turns again to a quote,
"Marriage is the perfection of what love aimed at,
ignorant of what is sought."²
She paused and gazed out the window, watching the horses
saunter across the pen.
Each one of them aware of the company of friends
and rivals.

Tuco had sauntered too close when he talked about the play
within Zen. She knew he took it serious but still
she didn't see the relevance of irreverence.
She'd pulled away.
He then walked away.

Poetry is just the evidence of life.
If your life is burning well,
poetry is just the ash.

Leonard Cohen
via Evelyn Rodriguez

II

Tuco read Arlu's letter.
Read it again
and began to respond, knowing this will take time.
"Are there any words that can decipher the morning?"³
He loved the opening line of the poem as well,
"Witness the full moon disappearing the stars"
but he knew better than to complicate his response.
This filly was skittish.

He considered adding a Rumi quote,
"beyond good and evil
there is a field
I'll meet you there."
But it didn't seem wise.

He felt trapped... without play or laughter.
Now, with passion doused
and too old for yoga,

He thought,
"Its time to explore this big umbrella."