Reentry

The Lotus Shrine on a foggy morning and lit up at night

Satchidananda Ashram, Yogaville, Virginia

I am so happy to be home!!!! This morning, I met Uma at Starbucks at 6:30 and we practiced with Bethany at 7. I have missed my friends so much! Seems as though i lost a bit of weight, my body felt light. My husband and i are still on luna de miel. :)

Omward Bound

On my last day at Yogaville, I meditated in Swami Satchidananda's tomb, Chidumbarum. It sits atop a hill with panoramic views of the Blue Ridge mountains. During the lectures on chakras, the instructor talked about how part of the process of healing the chakras involved balancing the feminine and masculine energies in each energetic center. Swamiji was a living example of this balancing of the natural polarities. He possessed many feminine qualities like the ability to be nurturing and accommodating and he possessed qualities associated with masculine energy like being an exceptional leader and being strong. One of the teachers who knew him for 30 years said that she had never seen him embarrassed. I found this particularly inspirational. How amazing to be so sure of oneself that we no longer care about what others think of us. Swamiji was the opening act at Woodstock, played at Carnegie Hall, met with several US presidents and many world leaders, yet considered himself to be a simple monk.
The morning Hatha practice was an international class! 8 teachers taught asanas in 8 different languages and 3 students sneezed during the practice and received bless yous in 3 different languages. Those 8 t/t's who are now t's completed the program with the added handicap of English being a second language. Part of the graduation ceremony at Yogaville is an interfaith ceremony. Prayers and chants from most of the world's religions are spoken and sung in a beautiful ritual aarti- light ceremony. It was actually my favorite part of the 2 weeks.
Retreat is always multifaceted....at times arduous, at times sweet with the nectar of clarity.....
Some things I will take home with me: During the lunch mealtime, a reading is read from Swami's vast writings and during this time, everyone is silent. There is always a table in the cafeteria where one may choose to eat that is silent. I sat there one meal by accident and liked it so much that I sat there many other times by choice. I find that I enjoy eating mindfully in silence. Also, when I received the name Shri Devi at my t/t I abbreviated it to Shri because I thought people might find it too strange and with my abbreviated last name- it is a mouthful, but after being called Shri Devi for 2 weeks, I find that I love the name and have embraced it. The Hindu holiday, Diwali, which is dedicated to the Goddess Shri Devi, was celebrated Saturday night at the ashram. It was a reminder of how auspicious the name is and what a gift it was to receive it. I also love the ashram practice of wearing whites when teaching Yoga and for satsang. White is the color of purity and it made teaching special. I think I will continue this habit on Full Moon practices.
Today, Sunday, my family celebrated my father's birthday in the usual festive Hamilton way, and tomorrow I begin my drive home.

The Final Countdown to Exiting Yogaville

I have nicknamed Yogaville the place of perpetual carpet. Though I have tried with passion and perseverance, I cannot find a private spot here with some even surface where I might practice Ashtanga. Therefore I am practicing without the vinyasa method and I am missing the metronome effect and the sense of play I feel with each jumpthrough. My meditation practice is 30 minutes longer here each day so in that realm I am very happy.
When I last blogged it was right before our Halloween celebration. At first it felt like I had lots of free time, but the schedule is quite full and when I have breaks I do not feel like writing. Sorry. Halloween here was so cute! The houses are very far apart so they do tailgating trick or treating. All the cars park in a large parking lot and all the kids go from car to car collecting treats.
Thursdays here are optional fasting days. The master cleanse recipe of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper is available all day. Last week, I found I was a bit cold so I will try some warm broth this time.
Last Friday was Kriya Cafe. Right after the 6 am meditation , the t/t's practiced some of the traditional purification techniques if they wanted to. Dressed in silly costumes to add to the festive mood, they drank salt water until they vomited and/or used a netti pot to clean the sinuses. A good time was had by all! The purification techniques are therapeutic and can make one feel exhilarated.
Yoga legend Lilias Folan was here over the weekend with a group of senior Yogis. She led the ashram in some beautiful songs at satsang on Saturday evening. There was a Sanskrit professor and author here that night as well. His name is Graham Schweig and he has written a beautiful translation of the Gita. I really loved his talk- he was very funny and very profound. He talked about looking at the world with the eye of love- Prema Netra. I love this as a lifelong practice. My day off was Sunday and I went to see my parents who live about 30 minutes away. One the way , I stopped to get gas and the owner of the convenience store was an Indian man with his young son behind the counter. It was Sunday morning and everyone in line except me was buying beer. When I came to the counter, I saw the man notice my Ganesh necklace and a look of understanding passed between us. I knew intuitively he felt there was common ground and that we were on similar paths. I looked at him with Prema Netra.
Yesterday, the t/ts had a class on Bhakti Yoga with swami Mataji. She spoke of Bhakti Yoga as the Yoga of love, faith and devotion which inspires us to commit to something fully. As we dedicate ourselves to some auspicious goal, love grows. She taught us the art of the puja- a ritual act of devotion. We watched her perform a puja and had the opportunity to place flower petals of the altar and to receive holy water and prasad- food infused with the energy of the puja. The t/t's received their new spiritual names at this puja and it was lovely to be a part of the ceremony. Tears of joy were abundantly flowing.
Photos of masters from many different traditions are everywher here. I love that- seems like one is on their best behavior when perfected eyes are watching.
I am missing Stan, our dogs and the Bliss Yoga sangha! I begin my drive back on Monday am after spending Sunday with my sweet twin sister. I am very excited to be back to teaching at Bliss On Tuesday night.
Peace , Love and Om!
Shri Devi

Karma Yoga at Lotus Shrine and Darshan at Ananda Kutir

Yesterday the morning wake up at 5:30 am was some wonderful live violin music by one of the swami's here. Our morning meditation was followed by a great Hatha practice. It was quite challenging and the teacher who is a swami in her 60's demonstrated a beautiful peacock pose. There are carpets on the floors here and I am having a bit of trouble adapting- my wrists are a bit sore. After, we all performed some selfless service (karma Yoga) at the Lotus Shrine. Photos are coming when I return but think of the Taj Mahal nestled in fertile mountains. My job was vacuuming the stairs and cleaning the windows. I pay someone to clean my own house, but this was a fun group project. I met a drummer here, Robert, who happens to play with Baghavan Das! He will be coming to Jax with Babba in Jan.- small planet! I also met someone from New York who knows one of our students, Margaret Bruner.
Today I was very excited because we went to Swami Satichidananda's house, Ananda Kutir, for darshan. Swamiji has achieved maha samadhi and left the physical form, but his presence is still vibrantly felt at Ananda Kutir and the darshan room even has his clothes and shoes draped over a chair with his photo inside. I saw the same set up for Swami Sivananda in India and I find it very sweet. Our group sat in meditation and I found my own meditation to be extremely peaceful. As our cars pulled into the driveway for the house, 5 deer greeted us as they playfully ran through the yard. I considered it an auspicious omen and a personal greeting from Swami Satchidananda. There is a beautiful Shiva statue here on the top of a hill called Kailash and someone saw a bear there today!
The weather continues to be amazing with warm, sunny days and cool evenings and mornings. I have lots of free time to do a second asana practice so that I don't forget Ashtanga and to read and hike on the property. I heard about a cave today that i will look for tomorrow.
Tonight we celebrate Halloween, Samhain, All Saints and All Souls day with an ashram party including costumes. Tomorrow our group will be fasting all day and Kriya Cafe will be Friday. Will explain in my next post.
Peace, Love and Om,
shri

Ashram Life

So, I begin my stay at Satichidananda Ashram in Yogaville (really!) Virginia. I am staffing the fall 200 hour yoga teacher training. There are 30 participants in the training, from all over the world. There are 3 daily meditations- at 6 am, 12 noon, and 6 pm, and a Hatha practice after the morning meditation.
The drive in was so beautiful! The leaves are already changing and they had their first frost of the season last night. I walked to the Lotus Shrine today for the noon meditation in the chilly air and bright sun. This land is incredibly beautiful and nourishing. I forget how much I love the mountains which surround us here. Much of our time is spent in silence here, where the only noises are from nature. A deep sense of peace permeates the air.
The food is delicious with many veggies from their own organic garden. I ate too much for dinner and had an uncomfortable 2nd asana practice around 7:30 pm. Tomorrow I think I will go back to my usual 2 meals per day and skip dinner.
I am coming in at the last half of this training so I have lots of catching up to do socially with the group.
It is time for bed- 9:30 pm - I miss you all! Lots of love, Shri

With His Holiness In Atlanta

I arrived in Atlanta yesterday for an all day panel discussion today at Emory University on meditation and the treatment of depression. The Dalai Lama has accepted a professorship with this prestigious school and together they are proving in laboratories what meditators have know for years.
I am writing from my hotel overwhelmed with all the data I downloaded today. Depression affects 30 million people in North America alone and the average age of onset has changed from 55 to 24! While there is evidence of genetic disposition in developing depression there is so much good news in this newest data- namely that the practice of meditation can alter gene expression and prevent depression from developing!!! Also, this new data shows evidence of brain changes in only 2 weeks of meditation, where much of the previous data only used long time meditators.
This was my first time seeing the D.L. and I found him to be captivatingly charming and funny and humble. The person next to me experienced giggles at first in his presence and then 15 seconds later was sobbing uncontrollably. My own physical experience was a state of heightened awareness and overwhelming well being.
I was headed back to my hotel after the panel discussion for an early dinner when I was asked to volunteer at the monks' performance. I was whisked away in the monk van to set up the retail center at the performance. Some of you may remember some of the monks from their last 3 visits to Jax and I saw some of our old friends and worked with them selling books, t-shirts and sacred items. As always, spending time with the monks is a good time. Mundane tasks like running credit cards become fun when working with them. They seem to be perennially in great spirits and it is absolutely infectious. Later, I watched their performance and remembered how amazing the multiphonic chanting is. The monks chant 3 notes at once as they manipulate their voice box into a human amplifier. Every cell in my body seemed to vibrate with the chanting.
Tomorrow morning is an early morning teaching to the Buddhist community. I am hoping it will be a more intimate gathering, but I understand Atlanta has a very large Buddhist community and people have come from all over so it will probably be another very large group. Security is very tight. I could not even bring in my purse today. The D.L. is surrounded continuously by a large detail of secret service men who form a wall of human flesh to protect him. I was hoping this meant that the US now recognized the D.L. as a formal head of state, but asked and was told that he is recognized as the head of state of a nonrecognized state. Semantics, but apparently important in the political world.
Tomorrow, I head back to Jax and will be teaching at Bliss on Monday night. We will be practicing 30 days of the Metta soon in honor of His Holiness.

Synchronicity and Yoga with Michael Franti!

C.G. Jung's classic, "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle", defines synchronicity as "a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of chance is involved." Joseph Jaworski calls these coincidences "predictable miracles."

I believe synchronicity to be one of the organizing principles of the Universe- the framework of chaos theory. I also live my life expecting synchronicity to happen and more importantly, using these subtle messages from the Source as a life compass. Life is so much easier when we go with the flow and move with the Universal current. Rather than being amazed when synchronicity happens, one should worry when these predictable miracles are not happening. The absence of synchronicity lets us know we have strayed too far from the optimal path.

So recently I had planned a beautiful trip to VA to Satchidananda Ashram to live and teach for two weeks at the ashram's fall 200 hour teacher training. My first Yoga teacher training 9 years ago was with this ashram in Mexico so I am so happy to be at a point in my life where I can be of service to this institution. As soon as I firmed up my dates for teaching, 3 unexpected events popped up for me here in Jax. Most of the time I am very much in control of my schedule, but these three events were out of my control. Years ago, I would have struggled against Universal rhythms, but now this is just how I live my life. I contacted the ashram and apologized for the extra work they would have to do to change my schedule and arranged to teach the final two weeks of the program rather than the first two weeks. The Yogis at the ashram could not have been nicer about the last minute change- it seems as though finding peace with change is part of maturing process of the soul. "I dwell in Possibility..." Emily Dickinson said.

So, one of the unexpected events was the opportunity to teach a private Yoga class to musical artist, peace activist and humanitarian Michael Franti! I am a fan of his music and his life choices. Sometimes activists can be quite angry, but I was very pleasantly surprised by Michael's gentle, kind demeanor. He is a dedicated daily practitioner of Yoga which is an amazing feat considering his busy schedule and I feel so grateful that our paths crossed if only briefly. Michael Franti is a warrior who shows up and speaks up. There will be a public showing of his documentary "I know I am not Alone" this Wednesday night at 7:30 at MOCA downtown.

Event #2 will be this weekend in Atlanta as I travel to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama! Saturday at Emory University, the D.L. and others scholars will participate in an all day symposium on the effects of meditation in healing depression, one of the D.L.'s pet projects. And Sunday will be private teachings to the Buddhist community. I am not a Buddhist, but I do have some monk contacts. :)

Event #3 will be the grand opening of the Lululemon Yoga apparel store in St. John's Town Center on Saturday, October 27. I am an ambassador for this globally conscious company and Bliss Yoga will be doing a Yoga demonstration there from 12:30 to 1:30.

All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess, to pick it up.

The Nagual Carlos Castaneda

La Pura Vida

We just returned from a holiday in Costa Rica. The land is lush, the beaches idyllic and the surf is great! The Ticos have a beautiful saying- La Pura Vida- The Pure Life. Many other cultures have similar phrases- La Dolce Vita in Italian- The Sweet Life, Carpe Diem- Seize the Day in Latin and the Aloha Spirit in Hawaii. I love this imperative to live life fully and completely, to suck the nectar out of every moment. When you are happy, you cast a vote in the Universal ballot box for more happiness.

FYI: Ticos have a longer life expectancy than Americans! Third World- Smird World.