Thursday, June 3, 2010

Recommendations of Inspirations and Ideas

Here are a few plugged-in places of inspiration for me lately:
Amazing channelings:
http://www.kryon.com/Audio (www.kryon.com)
Consciousness schools:
www.noetic.org the institute of noetic sciences
www.ashoka.org
ninegates.com
Inspiring groups to find opportunities:
www.pioneersofchange.net
www.changemakers.net
www.awakeningearth.com (I am especially thinking of Eagyl and his 7 seeds project)
www.bioneers.org (a collective heritage institute in Santa Fe)
www.olceri.org/docs/01_general_plan.pdf (permaculture project of epic proportion- Jai Sam)

I have found some useful cures for India:



Prickly heat:
on skin:
-Sandalwood powder sequestered from any temple!
-Juice of common bean leaves mixed with lemon
-cucumber juice
Internal DON'T: Mango, papaya, chili (anything obviously heating)

Lice: (or to smell like salad dressing!)
-Neem oil, neem leaf
-Lemon and garlic
-Vinegar and euclyptus oil
(Put these things in and sleep with them overnight for a week, either on their own or all together (like I did to be sure)
-Comb often!

Stomach problems:
-probiotics!
-The juice of soaked lentils (10-12 hrs)
-Fermented rice (10-12hrs)

Sub CULT-URE culture

Oh time in no existence! Sacred flight!
It is with immense gratitude and humility that I now write: soaring on the breeze of all thing!
Indian ashram subculture has taken me under her wing through intended as well as mysterious means. after the intense time of close proximity to sacred body manifest with Amma, I received an earth moving blessing for departure and flew away to park my tent beside a beautiful lake and intensively study and practice yoga with some devotees of Sivananda at Swami Vishnu Devananda's ashram in Neyyar Dam, Kerala. The practice of these folks is a completely integrated one of the yoga vedanta philosophies of the ages, yet they emphasize Hatha yoga (physical pranayama and asanas), karma yoga (selfless service), Bhakti yoga (devotional practice), and jana yoga (through meditation). There were moments of all- joy, love, connection, peace, discipline- yet mostly resistance on my part. Sivananda is a strict and ridged system to which I became bored and quick to judge what I saw as dogma. More than about yoga, I learned of humility, respect, and discipline in a new flavor. The ashram itself is a true paradise, its mere existence is strongly influencing the freedom and awakening of many beings. I dearly express my gratitude with a humble bow.
More recently I have been guided to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's home just as he also arrived from tour in Bangalore. In the end, I was not allowed to stay with them despite my strong volition, but I can now see that staying was actually unnecessary, as a friend grabbed a book on my way out, The Narada Bhakti Sutra, in which he told me all that I needed to hear about love and devotion. His international outreach of humanitarian work and the evolution of consciousness is highly inspiring.
Lastly, I have just been introduced to a sacred place of Sai Baba, who many swear is the re-incarnation of Jesus! Here in Orissa, one cannot go too far without seeing his photo or name somewhere. We all make our own story, theirs is plastered all over the wall.
Perhaps another guru/ ashram will show itself, yet movement now beckons to Sikkim, near Tibet and Nepal with its strong Buddhist influence. Stepping close, moving closer to slow-down, fearless woes and cleaver- close magnified cosmos!
Also Vipassana.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Muddy mountain men and hugging saints

The mountains of India's Western Gnats is nothing that one would imagine this sticky hot summer land to hold within it's borders. The last week has proven to me that anything is possible, or as they say here :sub-kooch mulega: "Everything possible": ravished bison, howling hungry monkeys, myriad feathered eagles and hawk friends, panthers, and not a scrap of garbage or human for miles!
After a week of lightning and thunder storms by day and basking in the warm forest clouds by day, the first India train ride carried me into a wonderland that is Amritapuri, where the human manifestation of this Amma has been born.This is my second experience in an ashram in India, and I am deeply impressed and feeling at home already. Amma means mother, and the spirit here is of the divine mother, which essentially speaks of universal and unconditional love, not only through words, but mostly through the embodiment of what those values are on this earth. Thus, the woman Amma, when not in the ashram, is traveling all over the world giving hugs to people, sometimes for 22+ hours at a time, starting projects, hospitals, disaster relief, environmental restoration, universities, ect. Quite inspiring, I will stay until I get a hug, though there is a line of about 4,000, there is much time.

May we grow more forests that grow people

Sadhana forest.
Inspiration and celebration awaits in this new forest of only six years. Thank you to and from the bottom of my heart for all involved in this journey, especially Aviram (an explination) and Yorit for your molding and sculpting abilities.

There is a deep resonance still that comes with the wind through these trees and community of reforesters, permaculturist, environmenal activists, dancers, musicians children, adults, Bollywood stars, and all around good folks. (Take a look for yourself) 

Sadhana forest has impacted this heart in a divine and powerful way.
She has changed me from the very cellular level of this being.
Many lessons of grounding the hands into the soil and pulling out the weeds of the spirit to be transformed into more potent fertilizer and mulch.
Humility and service are not spoken of, they are embodied fully in all of
the souls of this organism, in all of the clarity and chaos.
With children, singing, planting, teaching, learning, happily in a land of freedom and un-schooling, was where I discovered a new part of the heart. (Children's Land!) I re-Discovered that piece which sings of innocence in the purest and most playful form, (here are 9 videos that you can see of  an eco-cycle "yatra"= "journey") the place of abundance and laughter. Everything is possible. Let the journey be filled now with integration.

The next project of Sadhana (though they are never-ending and always evolving) is a new community in Haiti which focuses particularly on building up a stable space in a particularly disaster-ridden area. I would strongly suggest having a look at this new project if interested in seeing/ engaging in a holistic approach to
helping resolve all problematic aspects of a post disaster area.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Very nice to meet you, India.

Completely inraveled in the gift that never ceases it's giving. The body that immediately surrounds me is in a state of constant blessing and thanksgiving. A bit further, the culture around holds me while beating to that same rhythm.
Auroville has contained me for the last two weeks in an intense environment of body work and Ayruveda lessons in which my mind and practice have been deeply expanded. Also, it is a big plus to be near the ocean in the middle of paradise, naturally.
Many friends here are opening their arms and welcoming me to experience their expertise of healing. I have had some Watsu treatments (water therapy-massage: "shiatsu+water=watsu"), kalaripayattu (traditional kerala region: derived from martial arts) massage, acro-sague (like acrobatic yoga+ massage), as well as two weeks straight of ayruvedic traditional oil massage and acupressure which I have also been studying and giving intensively. This world of healing is very wide, contemplation and devotion is the next step.

My oiled hands cry out to be planted in the earth for some time, so the next stop is Sadhana Forest where I will set up camp and conduct a yoga workshop while working on the communities reforestation efforts and taking permaculture classes for the next while.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Following the winds of out

Israel and the Palestinian territories have held me firm, with roots as sunk as deeply as foreseeable for a two month stay. Life and legacies have swept me under their wings as the undercurrent of a winter Mediterranean Sea's currents. As the last day is here, feelings of mourning transition and excitement after anticipatory Grieving have sUbsided; I am left holding the essence of these Paradoxes with a slight smile.

It feels a shame to leave:
25.2.10-1.6.10 "walk about love festival" (check out the group if interested)
90 days and 1000 kilometers of multicultural journey

Don Beck and his tour in Israel, April, along with his teachings and the community that forms respectively.

Integral Ikido dojo opening and Big Mind / big heart (practice).
Shambala Israel sitting, Sadhana, Kirtan.

Hava v Adam farmhosted me many times, each bringing inspiration and connections to brilliant and revolutionary-evolutionary individuals. In the end, I decided away from joining the formation of an intentional community upon its lands while extrapolating a great deal of personal formation and intentional creation: Building with Cob, medicine, Bio-Falha planting, Permaculture, love, celebration, the Tao of physics in dialogue.
Marda Farm
Adamama

Mepeace collaboration opportunities in the area, yet I will continue to enjoy (as all are welcome, too) http://http://www.mepeace.org/ a very user-friendly site of networking with other activists and Peacemakers world wide, from afar.

The beautiful language(s) Flowing through the Airs and now also (Stuttering at times) from my lips.

Indeed, and Foremost, the divine wealth of beautiful human Beings that I love and Cherish to the stars and beyond. It is truly in the hearts of our transpersonal and personal relationships that I find home and great warmth waged within these borders. My gratitude is overflowing. Friends and family, may we meet on the Astral planes, in waking and dream.