The Center for Massage Therapy & Sound Healing

I wake up at the foot of the mountains deep in the jungle. We traveled all day and came in after dark to arrive in Khajuraho. The silence is profound here. After sharing space with millions, now we are one hundred souls in the silence except for the hyenas howl. I miss the drum and the hum and all those other souls. It’s amazing how attached I got to our little camp within a week! Letting go is just part of practice.

We begin to find our way all over again in very different territory. The sky is incredible. The main temple here is made from marble and granite and laid out according to Vedic architecture. The Shakti energy is palpable. I sleep very little, eat very little but have strong energy.

I’ve become the “camp nurse”. It’s just my calling, one of my gifts. Many are ill with some sort of virus. I treat blisters, bug bites, runny noses. Sun burns and sore throats. Good thing we have no broken hearts here. I can honestly say I never learned the remedy for that. But mostly I try to just give Metta or loving kindness and reassuring words to all.

They just want to hear that everything is ok. Maybe we all do. Thank you Steve for initiating me into the “everything is ok” practice. To me it means I accept all of life as it is, pain as well as pleasure, sorrows as well as happiness, shadow the same as light.

I push nothing away and release all my resistance. It’s easy to see your Self in the beauty of the morning sunrise. But sometimes not so easy to turn that same eye of reflection on the piles of cow dung. Let they both burn hot, give light, and warm our hearts.

I’m so high up on the roof top of the temple this morning I feel as if I could lean over and kiss the face of God. But then that would be impossible because you can’t kiss the one face. We need another for that. Maybe that’s why we have the many in the one and the one in the many.

Love and light from the journey within. FYI everything is ok here.

Back on the bus. It’s such a trip traveling by bus through India. It requires lots of patience and prayers. Everything happens in its own good time and there is simply no getting from here to there quickly. One simply has to sit back and enjoy the journey.

Of course the real journey we are all on is the inner journey. The exploration of Self. We make this outer pilgrimage with our feet and the inner one with our hearts. Either way it’s never easy. Constantly you are bring challenged to find new and creative ways to simplify and let go of things along the way. You begin to clearly discern between needs and wants and desires gradually fade until you are stripped down to bare essentials. At least the pack is lighter.

Mentally and physically you offer up everything you can. Om Nama Shivia. I have been living in “down sizing” mode for several years now and I’m quite used to separating wheat from chafe.

I came prepared to leave everything in my pack behind as I leave here and maybe lots of other stuff I know longer need, such as self criticism, never feeling quite “good enough”, doubting my own gifts, and not being able to fully stand in my own light without projecting that onto others.

But right now I’m stuck in traffic on this bus and i have to go. We decided the only way to get ourselves moving again is by chanting to Ganesh to please remove this obstacle before us.

How do you remove obstacles on your path?

Jai Ganesh from the Bhakti Bus deep in the heart of India
Jude

Lots of choices of things to do and places to see for our group. We disperse out every afternoon in different directions and re group every evening.

Today I’m choosing to focus on my inner landscape and my meditation practice. Just like the outer landscape there are so many choices, thoughts, things to do lists, and so on that go on inside. We disperse our consciousness out every where and scatter it all over the place. We try to sit still and quiet our mind but it decides to take a hike to see what else it can find more interesting than breathing. We try to bring it back and make it sit on the mat. It laughs out loud at us. So much for willful practice.

So we try softer, surrender our will and allow things to be just as they are. We let go of tension and striving and arriving and seeking and just start seeing or witnessing. We begin to rest the mind in the heart or in the mantra. As we collect our awareness into just this we realize we are going nowhere because we already ARE there. We just breathe, relax, feel, watch and allow the practice to unfold itself.

It’s a balance of effort and surrender like all yoga. It’s a beautiful day here in India, eighty degrees, blue skies, perfect weather to take a hike. But today I’m choosing to sit and go nowhere. How about you?

White paper, empty slate,
Blank pages mind erased

Namaste Jude

Monday is Shiva day and many are out to celebrate this. A few of us walk to the village temple where the Shiva LIngam is for puga. The sudhus there recognize me. I’ve been to this temple several times this week as it is close by.

I bow my head bring my hands to prayer position and say namaste to one of them. He gives me a high five and a big grin. Culture goes both ways.

They have just finished the fire ceremony when we arrive. We sit for an elaborate puga to Shiva. They let us participate in the ceremony today and we pass the fire and incense over the LIngam as prayers are said. After puga we receive individual blessing and he ties our arm with threads of the bright mela orange colors to wear and apply the tikuli or bright orange bindi to our foreheads.

Walking back to camp someone asks the question, “How do you know for sure if the meditation is working or if you are saying the mantra correctly?” The answer is simple. By the fruits of the Practice. Are we more happy, more kind, more loving, and compassionate than before? Do our families and friends feel loved and well cared for? If so, then the meditation is working. If not, you may want to look at changing your practice. Any practice without heart is simply not worth practicing.

Om shanti peace
May there be peace in your hearts and peace in the world
Jude

Visited an ashram deep inside the mela today. We walked for several hours to get there but it was worth every step. We were greeted with open arms and incredible hospitality when we arrived. There are multiple Europeans living in camp there including one from US. We are able to converse in English. The surroundings are extremely simple and we realize immediately that in our camp we have been living in luxury by most other standards.

I’ve never eaten at a happier table. I never have FELT the blessing instead of just hearing it. There is so much love in the food it is truly Prasad and a gift to partake of it with others. We eat with our fingers from bowls made of pressed leaves and we laugh and love much during our meal together.

The people in India never suffer from the American disease of loneliness. They live together, work together, walk together, eat together and sleep together. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Maybe there just isn’t enough space per person to be alone anywhere here.

Togetherness is abundant in India and especially the mela where we are even more condensed. I think maybe that’s one of the reasons they are so happy.

My take away for the day, Less is More. Less stuff, less stress, less worry, less aloneness, less work, = More Happy. Isn’t that the secret elixir we are all looking for?
May you be happy, may you be healthy, and may you be at peace.

Namaste and Jai Ma to all.

And to my beloved Kripalu sisters Crystal and April , Jai Bhagwan

The frenzy continues to build at the Kumba mela. This is the main day for the entire three month festival! There are approximately 1.2 million of us here at this point in time. One can barely move through the crowd of people.

The noise is incredible and of course I only hear half of it. Not sure how the others cope. The only thing that makes it bearable is Shiva’s Drum. There is a constant low hum of mantra chanting and drumming that plays 24/7 as a background to all other sounds. I try to block out the rest and walk to the beat of the drum. I sleep to beat to the drum and awake to the beat of the drum.

What’s so incredible about it is there are thousands of drummers drumming all over the camps and somehow it all becomes one perfect rhythm. But then we are in India and it has it’s own rhythm, timeless and in harmony with all things.

A few of us make our way in Patanjalis temple outside the village to see the Shiva LIngam. The Infinite feels so accessable here. Everything has such a sense of sacredness. People come and go. Some make offerings some stay for puga with the temple priest, others simply pass through. The incense hangs in the air along with the sound of Om. We drink it all in and our cup runneth over.

The LIngam signifies that creation is effected by the union of ‘Prakriti’ and ‘Purusha,’ the male and the female powers of Nature.
They are two aspects of one Self never separate from each other, form and formlessness. It’s stands as a representation in outer form to help us remember our true nature of the inner formless spirit not two just one.

Om Nama Shivia
Jude

Many thanks to all who have participated in the blog. You add depth and meaning to my experience by sharing your thoughts.

Second week begins. It’s hard to believe. The passage of time seems so different here. It’s as if we had somehow landed right in the middle of the eternal Now. Aside from the bells that call us in for prayers and tea, there is no markage of time other than cycles of day and night, and one quickly loses count of them. Although I have to say that with each passing day the groups happiness grows exponentially. It is noticeable in every face every encounter we can barely contain our joy.

I’m aware of this particular day because it is an auspicious one. There is a Vedic wedding here today in the scared grove between one of the men and women in our group. We are all soooo excited to celebrate their union. It was a breathtakingly beautiful ceremony and a perfect day for an outdoor wedding. The bride and groom repeated their vows along with Vedic mantras In front of a sacred fire. The fire serves as their witness as they vow to honor the scared fire within each others heart. May they grow old together and be guided, nourished and protected by the infinite love of the Devine light within.

Om Shanti
Jude

Walked along the bank of the Ganges all morning up to the main Kumba Mela. It was a meditative journey, breathe in breathe out, repeat. We pass many sadhus along the way in their bright orange robes. Children play down by the river women wash clothes. I give my food for the day away early while my heart is still louder than my belly, least I be tempted to keep it for myself. I had breakfast, many I meet did not.

The Mela crowd is enormous. Someone in our group described it like a cross between a huge state fair, a Grateful Dead rock concert, a three ring circus, and a huge religious gathering. That’s a pretty good description. There are camps everywhere. Dogs, kids, elephants, sadhus, and all forms of human beings on the streets. It’s a controlled chaos of sorts but then maybe all of India is. Somehow things all work but then they have been doing this for thousands of years!

We travel on to where the Ganges meets the Yamuna, the confluence of the two rivers, to dip in its sacred waters . There is a serene like quality to this place that draws you into it. The energy is palpable. You can feel its essence flowing in you. It’s a ritual repeated millions of times over by all sorts of spiritual seekers who have come before me, as well, as those who will follow. The path is never ending. All are drawn to this great river of life and it’s sweet elixir of love. I am blessed beyond belief.

Namaste

Jude