The Silly Putty of the Soul – Embracing Formless Awareness

Topic 1: Shedding the Illusions
As we step onto our mats tonight, imagine leaving behind not just your shoes at the front door, but also the weight of your identity—the labels, expectations, and judgments that shape how you see yourself. These things may feel permanent, but they are like silly putty: pliable and impermanent, shaped by external pressures and internal stories.

The ego often tells us there’s something missing, that we need to fill an emptiness within us. But what if that emptiness isn’t a problem? What if, like silly putty, this formless space is actually a gift—a place where anything is possible? As Lao Tzu said, “We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” Similarly, this openness, this so-called void, holds the potential for transformation.

Topic 2: The Creative Potential of Emptiness
Emptiness, or shunyata, is not a barren void but a fertile space full of infinite possibilities. Think of silly putty: in its natural state, it has no set form. But in your hands, it can be shaped into anything your imagination can conceive. It’s not what silly putty lacks that makes it special—it’s what it can become.

Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings—always darker, emptier, and simpler.” Yet it’s in that simplicity, like the smooth surface of silly putty, that creativity takes root. Just as silence isn’t empty but full of potential listening, emptiness isn’t the absence of self—it’s an invitation to shape ourselves into whatever our soul can imagine.

Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us: “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. Wave is water; water is wave.” Like a wave and the ocean, formlessness and form are deeply interconnected. When we embrace the formless awareness within, we begin to see ourselves not as fixed entities but as fluid, creative beings.

Topic 3: Playing with the Formless
As we flow through practice tonight, let’s honor this formless awareness within us. Imagine yourself as silly putty—soft, adaptable, and full of potential. Every breath, every movement is an opportunity to shape yourself anew, not based on old patterns or external expectations but from the boundless creativity of your inner being.

This emptiness we so often fear is not a void to run from but a spaciousness to embrace. It’s the stillness where we can let go of the rigid molds that confine us and shape something new. At the end of tonight’s practice, as you imagine stepping back into the world, consider which parts of yourself you’ll shape into something meaningful and which parts you’ll leave behind.

As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Emptiness is not something to be afraid of. The Heart Sutra teaches us that form may be empty of self, but it’s full of everything else.” Like silly putty, you are limitless, ready to be shaped into the highest vision your soul can imagine.

Guided Mantra for Practice:
“Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. I am formless, yet full of possibility.”

Carry this mantra with you as you move, allowing the formless awareness within to guide you toward infinite creativity and transformation.

Mixed Bag

Inhale the future. Exhale the past.

“We dye our soul with the color of our thoughts.”

“I’ve found that the less stuff I own, the less my stuff owns me.” – Nathan W. Morris.

“Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high-quality life.”- Linda Breen Pierce.

“Less can be more. Any designer knows that one can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in.” – David Yglesias

“Learn to live with less so that you appreciate more.” – James Ryan

“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.” – Joshua Becker.

“Be a curator of your life. Slowly cut things out until you’re left only with what you love, with what’s necessary, with what makes you happy.”- Leo Babauta.

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.

“No one can save you and no one may. You alone must do the work” – the Buddha

Learning to unlearn is the highest form of learning. —Buddhist proverb

Wisdom is knowing we are all One. Love is what it feels like and Compassion is what it acts like.

“In meditation and in our daily lives there are three qualities that we can nurture, cultivate, and bring out. We already possess these, but they can be ripened: precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go.” – Pema Chodron

“A scar is proof that healing has occurred. It is better to trip up with the feet than trip with the tongue. You can always get up when you trip with the feet, but when you trip up with the tongue you can never take your words back.” – David Scott

“We have two choices… We can wear away or rust away. i choose to wear away pursuing my dreams and hopes.”

“The best thing you could do is master the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire, you are the fire.” -Mama Indigo

“You can always find out who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out and the tide always eventually goes out.”

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little bit of extra effort.” – David Scott

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You’re only as young as your spine is flexible. Quality of life is determined by our health.” – David Scott

“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” – Zen Shin

“Everyone you meet can be your master and you can learn something from everyone you meet. When you witness someone in life, doing something better than you, instead of thinking of that person as competition, think of that person as inspiration.” – David Scott

“The battle you are going through is not fueled by the words or actions of others; it is fueled by the mind that gives it importance.” ― Shannon L. Alder

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” – Rumi

“The study of asana is not about mastering posture. It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.” – B.K.S Iyengar

“Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted — in body, mind, and heart — and how gradually to open and release these blockages. As these blockages are cleared, our energy is freed. We start to feel more harmonious, more at one with ourselves. Our lives begin to flow — or we begin to flow more in our lives.” – Cybele Tomlinson

“To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.” – F Scott Fetzgerald