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Roots, Rock, and Reggae

Wow there’s nothing that’s make me feel any better than having a Bob Marley reggae kind of day. It’s Spring and yeah, its great to be alive. “Sun is shining and the weather is sweet now. ” There is something sweet about that reggae beat that just makes you want to smile. It’s irresistible, even when you don’t feel like it, you find yourself right smack in the middle of your happy dance!

My yoga teacher, Saul David Raye says , “Bob Marley was one of the worlds great prophets because he spoke a universal language of love that touched the heart of everyone.” Sometimes the sweetest meditation you can have is to be totally lost in the moment through movement and music. When you are yearning for the universal feeling of oneness music can be the souls best friend. Just for a bit the world ceases to exist. You dance like no one is watching. Your feet turn to wings, your heart starts to sing and you simply disappear into the essence of the eternal flow.

Samadhi doesn’t always have to happen seated on your cushion. In fact it occurs naturally all the time when our minds are completely absorbed into a single focus of attention. When we stop long enough to truly listen with our hearts as well as our minds we become one with the rhythm of all creation. Is it Roots, Rock and Reggae, or Is This Love I’m feelin’ ?

Jai Ma to “One Love, One Heart”
Jude

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Milk and Muddy Water

Milk and Muddy Water

A great yogi once said , “God is milk and God is muddy water, but we know not to drink the muddy water.” Really? …..it’s that simple?……. Some days you sure couldn’t prove that by me. It seems as if muddy water is ALL I drink in. Then I wonder why I don’t feel so good. Maybe not enough milk?

Maybe you are wondering why would anyone would choose to drink muddy water? We would call that Avidya or lack of knowledge. Our conscious mind may not even be aware of the fact we are drinking muddy water but our ” buddhi” mind or true Self has the vidya or knowledge within to know this. Maybe when we were kids growing up there just wasn’t enough milk to go around in our family.

Maybe someone gave us the muddy water and told us it was just as good and we believed it. Maybe someone told us we couldn’t have milk unless we did something “good ” to earn it. Maybe these old beliefs make us think we don’t deserve milk. Milk is love. Love is milk . We simply can’t live without it. It’s our first cup we receive in life and the elixier that makes it all bearable somehow.

We know from our meditation practice that God is inclusive of ALL things, milk and muddy water. There is no concept of good vs bad, it is a nondualistic practice. Yet our mind longs to go from pleasure, to pleasure,to pleasure and not have any difficulty at all in our life or our practice. We also know, its impossible to climb a smooth mountain. It takes all those deep cracks and crevices to give us a foot hold sometimes. There are many peaks and valleys as part of the one path that leads to the Great Heart.

As we begin to peek inside our hearts and minds into these old cracks and crevices, we become aware of this relationship between drinking the muddy water and not feeling so well. The first step to creating change is always awareness. We first have to realize what we are taking in before we can change or limit its content.

One good way to focus our awareness in meditation is the naming of thoughts such as fear, judging, thinking, etc.This naming process can help us to realize when our mind is stuck or off track in our practice. I like to just break it down into milk or muddy water. Its simple that way and doesn’t distract me. Some days I’ve got a lot of milk and just a bit of muddy water. Some days it’s just muddy water, muddy water, muddy water until you would think I must be sitting in a giant cesspool of some sort. Some days are like that. The muddy water days build our Self compassion muscles. They offer us the opportunity to celebrate with great gratitude every tiny sip of milk we drink in.

Self observation through meditation gives us the opportunity to direct our focus of attention on the object of our choice. We can choose to set down the glass of muddy water or at least let it settle and become clear for awhile .
Every now and then, some situation may trigger our old habits and we find ourselves reaching for that old familiar cup wanting to taste the muddy water again . If this happens, please remind yourself to take only a small homeopathic dose medicinally, just so your heart doesn’t forget to be immune to it!

Bottoms up. What’s in your cup?
Got milk anyone?

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Meditation: A Practice of Falling in Love with Your True Self

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The practice of meditation is a practice of Self discovery. It is a relationship we cultivate within that allows us to know, accept, and fall in love with our deepest essence of Self. It can happen spontaneously, as in love at first sight, but for many it happens over a gradual period of time. We first learn to know our true Self as pure unchanging abiding awareness. We don’t learn this from our thinking mind, but from the heart of wisdom itself or what yoga calls the “buddhi mind”. Through this knowing, we learn to trust and accept the Self, and through knowing and trusting, we become infinitely loving, kind and compassionate of the Self.

The Bhagavad Gita says that Yoga is the process of learning to tolerate being ones Self, with ALL our thoughts, feelings and emotions. We are “all that” and yet “not that” at all. We are the perceiver of all that. The unwavering cosmic consciousness, the light through which the lens of the eye sees or senses the experience. As Francis of Assisi so succinctly put it “The one you are looking for is the one who is looking

The Yoga Sutras give us a map to show the way to our hearts deepest desire for union. Yoga Sutra 1.2 says that Yoga is the selective awareness of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings that you choose to focus on. So often we choose to focus on thoughts of the ego and its constant comparisons of Self to others. We listen to mind stuff that says we are never good enough, lovable enough, beautiful enough, etc. The true Self has a different message for us. One of pure satya or truth. It is simple, Sat Chit Ananda.

True consciousness is bliss. It is our essential nature. It is the love we are and the love we are looking for at the same time, both subject and object, or the essence that is created when subject and object merge into oneness. The Yoga Sutra 1.41 tells us that, Samayama or samadhi is “a state of absorption wherein the knower, the experience of knowing, and the object of knowledge fuse into one indistinguishable subject-object.” That fusion is the practice of yoga, or union

The practice itself is essential. Just as any relationship requires energy to sustain and nurture itself, so does the practice of meditation. We experience the same ups and downs, doubts, anger and fears, within our relationship to our Self and our meditation practice as we do in our relationships with others. We may lose our hearts way many times.

It’s our meditation practice that calls us home and re-minds us of our true Self. Its our practice that allows us surf the wave of bliss, to be its ebb and flow, to stay seated as a silent witness through peaks and troughs, and know it is all one wave.

My thought to take away today is simple. When the surf is up, riding the wave can be challenging. Affirm your essential nature of Sat Chit Ananda. Use your selective awareness wisely. Focus all your attention on that which honors your true Self. Put your ego away for awhile, rest your mind in your heart and be one with the flow of all creation as it supports you.

Meditation practice….. what’s love got to do with it?

Love and Light Jude

 

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Home Sweet Home

Vision without action is merely a dream.
Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action changes the world .
Joel Arthur Barker

Dear Source Sangha,
Thanks to all of you for your kind and loving support for my recent journey.
I was so grateful to be able to share my blog with you and have each of you participate in the experience.

Because of limited access I have just today been able to read all of your replies. You have all touched my heart and enriched my journey so much with your thoughts and words. What great yogis you are!

My transition home has been physically very challenging. I’m hoping to be well enough to be back to teaching next week but still need much rest and recuperation at present time.

I look forward to sharing pictures, stories and practices with you soon.

Namaste
Jude

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Everything I Need to Know

Everything I Need to Know
About life I learned on my spiritual journey to India.

Truth: Satya
Panditgi says truth is so simple yet sooooo difficult and almost impossible to truly embrace in one’s life. He gets a big Amen from me on that one.

Swami Kripalu use to always say if you want to start practicing Satya or truth begin by just saying a little less untruth. He also understood the magnitude of the practice.

We have so much ego to protect and defend and so many fears and concerns about how others see us to be able to honestly reveal our true self. What if no one loves the real me? What if I’m not as nice or kind or loving as I seem? What if I have some secret aspect of myself and can’t let anyone see or don’t even see myself?

Probably the closest we come to being our true selves is with our best friends and/or our lovers and this is precisely WHY we love them so much. They accept us as we are, even the not so pretty self. They know us without our masks. Truth can be humiliating and frightening but can also be quietly comforting and free our hearts in untold ways. Find someone you trust and who really loves you to practice satya with and never accept anything as truth from someone who doesn’t really love you.

Simplicity: I bow down before you.
I’m absolutely amazed at how little it takes to be really happy. We have been living in almost austerity like conditions here and yet our joy grows more and more each day.

Sometime I think we Americans just don’t get this one any more. We create complexity in order to fill space in our life. We try to fill the emptiness inside with something outside. When you fully appreciate the night sky, the moon and stars in its breathtaking detail, isn’t that complex enough? Couldn’t we just stop long enough to see what’s in front of us now without going to get something more?

Our minds are trained from birth to believe, if only we had this or that thing then we would be happy. We are sold a complex life that says you’re not good enough- without whatever their selling. We women, especially buy into this be beautiful line of goods for sale. Beauty is simple. Its available to all. One can possess it but never buy it. It only comes from within.

A truly simple life is richly complex and rewarding. It’s full of zest and vigor. It’s creative and challenging. It’s not driven by owning things but by owning ones Self. If you’re looking for a way to start simplifying your life, clear out some closets. Give it to Goodwill, someone else may really need it. Downsize the mania, the to do lists, the overtime. Read more, dance more, love more, and do less things you think you should.

Love: ahimsa
It’s the BIG happy. We are born from love we spend our lives immersed in love and in the end, we return to love.
It’s our immortal spirit and our true nature. We all have it, we possess it intrinsically. Sometimes it hidden under layers of guilt, shame, pain, sorrow, and oppression by others. But the light is always within. There is no wind strong enough to blow it out, no waters than can wash it away, no darkness it cannot shine through.

Real love is a choice, a way of being and living from the heart, not something rare we find outside ourselves. The Bahkti sutra says love someone or something larger than yourself wildly, be completed devoted. Immerse yourself in that river of love that flows from your own heart and from there, let your love flow into the great ocean of love that contains all things.

I’ll share the great Sufi prayer:

May the love we share here spread it wings and fly across the earth to sing it song to every soul that is alive.
May the blessing of it’s grace and love be felt by everyone
And may we all see the light within within within.

Signin off from India.
OMW home.
Namaste

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Web of Life

The word tantra means web or woof the thread which is interwoven and cannot be separate from. It recognizes there are many paths to the ONE who is in everything.

Panditgia says if you want to love the Devine then love all of creation that manifests from that source. To love the many is to love the ONE, deeply. He encourages us to start at home and make our families a nest of love to fly from.

Our Communal life here at camp takes lots of communication, cooperation and compassion. It’s an excellent medium to practice in as extended family.

To have ANY sister is a great blessing but to have Tantra Sisters is an amazing heart opening experience. I wake to the sounds of their laughter in the morning. It is the sweetest song I know. We giggle and play like six year old’s, we talk about men and making love as if we were teenagers, we pray together like women with wisdom and grace. We are radiant in our hearts and it shows in our faces. A truly awakened women is a great joy.

She owns her shakti and embodies the sacred feminine essence that gives life and nurtures all. She offers herself openly to the one through loving the many unconditionally.

My life has been blessed with many such sisters. How about yours?

Om Shanti Jude
Jai Ma to all my Missouri sisters!

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Kumba Rain Dance

Just so you know its not ALWAYS blissful on the journey. Now it’s not only raining and wet, but dark and cold. You simply can’t let that kind of consciousness creep up on you. It takes hold so easily and won’t let go. One thing is certain we haven’t come this far to sit here and shiver in the dark. Although, outer forces may seem oppressive we have conscious control of our inner awareness .

As I’m contemplating this fact, I’m inspired with vision by the Goddess of Fun and Light herself, my good friend Claudette on the other side of the world. I knew immediately what she would do in my situation. So Claude, the Kumba Mela Rain Dance is for you.

I hit the play button and Every Breath You Take comes alive from the iPod. I start to dance. Leia joins me and soon we are all on our feet dancing and singing. Next thing you know our flashlights start appearing and our dark bamboo ceiling in the jungle is transformed into the greatest disco light show In India.

We are on a groove now and move on to Born this Way, Walking on Broken Glass, and others. I’m saving the best song for last, like any good DJ and for our grand finale, the Beatles take us out with My Sweet Lord. By the time we make it to the chorus we are burning down the hut with the inner fire of Hare Krishna.

Life is what you make it. You are never a victim of your circumstances unless you choose to be. So If things seem a little gloomy where you are put on some music and get up and dance. You may just light your own inner fire of transformation.

Hare Krishna
Jude

p.s. My Sweet Lord, thanks again for the rain. As it blows against may face, I cannot tell it from these tears of joy

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The Pundits Medicine

Nothing to do but offer it up. Global climate change comes to India and we live in heavy rains the past two days. Even my mind feels soggy. No dry clothes or sleeping bag. Panditgi keeps our spirits up and says this is just Gods way of laughing at us for making plans.

So we cancel the temple exploration for the day and practice manifestation of form from formlessness. Thank you for the rain God.

Today’s practice was such a gift! There is no hatha yoga taught here only philosophy and practices from Vedas, Upanishads and Yoga Sutras .

I’m aware of how important it is to balance deep spiritual work with much laughter and great humility. Panditgis stories ask us to laugh at all of life and the absurdity of the mind. We are comical by nature but laugh better at others sometimes than self. He tells us many stories about his travels and students and we howl with laughter. It’s almost like he’s this profound philosopher pundit and closet comedian wanna be at the same time. Just when your mind can’t quite comprehend the philosophy any more he cracks you up with some great cosmic joke.

A Pundit by the way is quite different from a Guru. A Pundit is usually a scholar, which Panditgia certainly is, of Sanskrit and Vedic knowledge and he is also a direct student and lineage holder of Swami Ramas.

A Guru usually has devotees and their devotion and great love of the Guru is transferred and transformed into love of the Devine which the Guru embodies.

Both paths are valid if your teacher is authentic. Again, how you tell this, is from the fruits of their practice. They speak and teach from a place of understanding and direct experience.

So, today if you’re working deep in your practice remember the Pundits philosophy. Laughter IS the best medicine. It is a healing salve for the wounds of the world.

The Gita tells us that yoga is the process of tolerating the consequences of being oneself. In other words, Arjuna is saying, get over it, learn to tolerate yourself. We all have our own karma we have to live with in this life. Maybe try not to take yourself so seriously.

You could check out a Laughter Yoga class online or watch a funny movie. Remember happiness is the secret elixir of life so LOL.

Namaste from India where we are knee deep in the muddy waters of life,