Archive for the ‘Travel Update’ Category

Interesting day. Full of internal activity…

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Awareness of bones.

If you are aware of something, then you are not that thing. Then if you are aware of awareness you are not that awareness.

Strong shift in mental and physical state after eating too much decadent tea-time snack. Wonder if it is sign of vata imbalance. Skipping dinner returned me to super calm state.

Enjoyed giving karma yoga talk today. Asked everyone to look all over their bodies and find areas they can’t see; which is mostly the face and back area. For these areas mirrors are required. In the same way, our deepest attitudes towards things are reflected in our actions. When we are doing karma yoga we are constantly engaging in activity with reflective awareness. Noticing our likes and dislikes, preferences, assumptions, tendencies, …

Tomorrow I will talk about how we put on masks but need to wear only one at a time. Otherwise it will cause strain and affect our posture. In the same way, we can maintain our internal posture by wearing only one mask at a time. Today, if you are a gardener then be 100% a gardener. Same if you are a cook, electrician, computer specialist, janitor, driver, or anything else. And fully enjoy it. In karma yoga we have the opportunity to role play; to practice engaging deeply in what we’re doing and letting the results settle as they will. The trick is to fully immerse but not be attached.

Next day, refer to Gita and how karma yoga is just a process for purification. In the same way that we flush stuff down the toilet during the cleanse, in karma yoga the fruits are the effects of the cleanse. Hence we are not ineresting in them for their own sake, we are interested in purifying ourselves.

Auspicious dreams, start of last course

Monday, August 18th, 2008

I’m in Mangrove Creek, Australia right now – in the state of New South Wales (NSW). The Satyananda Yoga Academy here offers an excellent course in Yogic Studies and Satyananda Teacher Training. The last course in the 3 year curriculum started today!

It’s really neat to listen to insight from some very experience teachers. We’re going through classes with them trying to role play as a student while remaining aware of there teaching style and approach. Every few minutes I forget I’m role playing and actually get caught up in the whole act – a lot like the theory of how a soul gets caught up in the human experience.

We had a full moon havan last night which ended with chanting 108 names of Shiva. During the night, I had a spectacular dream of a conscious, flying Shiva lingam. At various points it was glowing with white light or melting, all the while flying around in conscious patterns. Seeing vivid dreams is always a strong reminder that the ability to visualize is latent. Cultivating the ability to visualize in a conscious state and to a high degree of detail has been (and continues to be) a long term project in self-development.

Back to homework for now…

peace