Yogafly2

Mudita Yoga Center in Poughkeepsie Journal

I'm sharing the online article which you can get by clicking here:

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20081201/NEWS06/812010309

What's great is the printed copy has a picture of Matt Gaines teaching his World Vegetarian Cooking class on Tuesday nights at Mudita Yoga Center in Kingston, New York.  There are also beautiful pictures of macrobiotic dishes that he teaches you how to make.  Yum:

Here's the article:

Macrobiotic Nutrition

If you're searching for a healthy, structured diet that's satisfying, too, macrobiotics may be worth exploring.

Macrobiotics, from the Greek for "long life," was developed by a Japanese philosopher named George Ohsawa. Considered a way of life - not only a way eating -Ohsawa created macrobiotics by integrating different schools of thought, including Asian and Western medicine, Buddhism and Christianity.

In the 1960s, Michio Kushi, a student of Ohsawa's, expanded on his ideas and, in 1978, opened the Kushi Institute. Located in Becket, Mass., the institute works to promote the macrobiotic lifestyle.

"Kushi came to the U.S. and basically started getting the natural food movement going here," said Warren Kramer, a macrobiotic counselor and a lecturer at the Kushi Institute.

"He was interested in the application of food in relationship to creating world peace. He understood that a good diet affects our minds and emotions, as well as influences what goes on in the environment."

Wary of toxins

Macrobiotics is a high-fiber diet emphasizing vegetables and whole grains. It combines dietary principles with philosophical thought, and it aims to avoid toxins that come from eating meats, dairy and foods rich with oil.

"It's a balance between the environment and your body," said Kathy Sheldon, a registered nurse who facilitates a monthly macrobiotic group called Miso Happy Cooking Club at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston. It is for people with cancer and anyone interested in learning about macrobiotics.

"It's an orderly approach to diet and lifestyle, and I like the fact that it is geared to the individual. We call our group Miso Happy, because miso soup is an important part of the diet and it just sounds joyful."

Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans and is a common component of the macrobiotic diet.

Today's standard macrobiotic diet consists of 50 percent to 60 percent organic whole grains, which includes barley, millet, brown rice, rye, corn and others. About 25 percent of the diet consists of locally grown fruits and vegetables, while 10 percent of the diet is made up of beans and bean products, such as tofu and tempeh. As far as animal products, some fish or seafood is consumed a few times a week. Proponents of the diet discourage eating meats, refined sugars and dairy.

A specific diet prescribed by a macrobiotics expert takes many things into consideration, such as the individual's gender, age, stress level and native climate.

"It's not one size fits all," Kramer said. "A child who is 5 years old would not eat the same as someone who's 75, and when it's summer, we don't eat the same as winter. A macrobiotic diet depends on a number of different factors, including health, environment, age and work."

Yoga, cooking come together

Shawn Harrison studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City, a school that teaches different ways of eating. She and her partner, Matt Gaines, recently bought Mudita Yoga Center in the Rondout section of Kingston, where they offer yoga as well as cooking classes.

"With macrobiotics, there's a structure and awareness and thought process that you bring to what you're putting in your body," Harrison said. "It's had obvious positive effects on my health. I feel balanced and relaxed, which brings a sense of peace and ease."

Barbara Stemke is a breast cancer survivor who has been learning about macrobiotics for four years and is part of the Miso Happy group.

"It requires discipline," the Kingston resident said. "It's an orderly, very specific way of eating, as opposed to vegetarianism. There's a great structure and one can follow it as little or as much as they want."

Stemke said she can feel the difference in her body after only one macrobiotic meal.

"If I start the day with a macrobiotic breakfast, I feel more balanced, energetic, focused and ready to go," she said. "It really has to do with clarity."

Macrobiotic eating also includes specific ways of preparing food. Pots, pans and utensils should be made from natural materials, including wood, glass and stainless steel.

"For cooking utensils, more natural materials are better," Kramer said. "Things like aluminum and Teflon can be toxic to the body. The substance of the pot goes into food."

Practitioners of the diet usually do not use microwaves, and the food is chewed very carefully to help with digestion.

"Macrobiotic food is easily digestible, where something like bacon and eggs strains the body," Stemke said. "But the diet is satisfying. You're not so likely to binge."

Preventive power uncertain

At this time, there are no published randomized clinical studies showing a macrobiotic diet can be used to prevent or cure cancer; however, diets consisting mostly of plant products high in fiber and low in fat are believed to reduce the risk of some cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease.

"When I'm following the diet less closely, I don't feel as well," said Constance Rudd, a retired court stenographer from Kingston. "I have less energy and am more fatigued, and I get more headaches. It also affects my mood. Macrobiotics has definitely improved my outlook. When I'm following it, my moods are much more even."

The National Institutes of Health, Office of Alternative Medicine is funding a long-term study to determine if a macrobiotic diet can prevent cancer.

Most followers of the diet fervently believe it's made them healthier in a variety of ways.

"When there's imbalance in your eating, disease and unhappiness occurs," Harrison said. "The macrobiotic diet helps you meet the challenges of daily life in a more relaxed manner. It seems subtle at first, but the more you practice it, the more obvious it becomes."

Lauren Yanks writes about healthy living for a number of publications and teaches English at SUNY New Paltz. She can be reached at laurenynks@aol.com

Ananda Ashram in the New York Times today

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By SHIVANI VORA
The New York Times
Published: Dec 12, 2008

IT began at 4:30 on a Saturday morning.

The three dozen participants started out with two half-hour Buddhist meditation sessions before dawn. They then spent the next two hours doing what’s called work practice, which consisted of scrubbing toilets and raking leaves, all in silence. An afternoon of instruction on the essentials of Buddhism led to more meditation, cleaning the dinner dishes, and sleeping in dorm-style accommodations. Sunday was an abbreviated version of the day before.

Perhaps what was the most unusual aspect of this austere weekend at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, N.Y., was that many of the attendees were not adherents of Eastern religious practices, but were part of an increasing number of nonbelievers who are seeking stress-free, spiritual and often inexpensive weekend breaks at local ashrams (isolated communities formed around a guru who follows Hindu philosophy) and Buddhist monasteries (residences for monks).

Philipp Malkmus, a 30-year-old consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the rigorous agenda at Zen Mountain Monastery over the Halloween weekend actually left him refreshed. “It wasn’t fun in the traditional sense, but it was the opposite of my life in New York City and a return to a very uncomplicated way of living,” he said. “It gave me the rest and relaxation I was looking for.”

Zen Mountain is just one example of an ashram or monastery in upstate New York that promises to recharge the mind and spirit of its guests with a combination of simplicity and meditation, served up on a tight schedule. At least half a dozen of these spiritual retreats are tucked away among the Catskill Mountains.

Most have been around for several decades, but until recently their visitors were mainly practicing Buddhists, serious yoga students or devotees of an ashram’s guru. Today, these spots are attracting clientele from the surrounding metropolitan areas who’ve had limited interaction with Eastern religions, yoga or a spiritual guru. Like Mr. Malkmus, who spent several months before his trip clocking 60-hour workweeks, more nonbelievers are coming to experience the rigors of an ashram or monastery as a way to escape.

At Vivekananda Retreat, Ridgely, an ashram in Stone Ridge founded in 1997 on the principles of Swami Vivekananda, for example, Pravrajika Gitaprana, the minister in residence, estimated that half of the roughly 100 guests the ashram sees every year aren’t followers of the swami. Five years ago, she said, almost all were.

Jennifer Schmid, the marketing director for Ananda Ashram in Monroe, said that many of the guests in the past few years had no knowledge of the ashram’s guru, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, before visiting. “It used to be that most of the people coming to stay here had read our guru’s writings or had studied with him,” she said. “Today, people are realizing that we’re a place they come to for refuge. They don’t necessarily know anything about our guru or know that we even have a guru.”

Mr. Malkmus had no prior knowledge of Buddhism or meditation before his stay at Zen Mountain. He discovered the monastery when he was searching the Internet for a weekend getaway in the Catskills. He chose to stay there, he said, because it represented the antithesis of his life of technology overdrive and constant action. “I’ve done lots of local trips to places like Fire Island and the Jersey Shore,” he said. “The scenery changes, but the vibe doesn’t. This has a back-to-the-basics approach that’s unlike anything I’ve ever done.”

It’s the spartan living style and firm scheduling at these retreats that make them increasingly popular as an alternative vacation option. Harried urbanites can spend whole days without making a decision or facing a crisis, without trying to find a cab in the rain or worrying about a client. The activities are predetermined and tightly scheduled: meditation, chanting religious verses, doing chores around the property and silent self-contemplation.

The retreats’ accessibility to several metropolitan areas and their affordability also enhance their appeal at a time when the economy is weak.

Ms. Schmid said that Ananda Ashram has been booked to its capacity of 50 guests nearly weekend, even in the winter, for the past two years. It is a marked change from when the ashram was not even half full during colder months. And the Introduction to Zen program that Mr. Malkmus participated in at Zen Mountain currently attracts 35 to 40 guests most weekends, up 25 percent from 10 years ago, said Ryushin Osho, a resident monk.

It’s generally stress — whether personal or job related — that drives guests to choose one of these spiritual getaways, according to surveyed clientele and the staff at ashrams and monasteries. Melissa Poller spent a weekend at the Dai Bosatsu Zendo monastery in Livingston Manor last May in an effort to ease her incessant worrying about her job in technology services. Its routine is similar to Zen Mountain’s, but with communication limited to only essential talking during much of the retreat, since activities such as eating and chores are viewed as a form of meditation. Ms. Poller said it was mentally and physically challenging to sit still and not talk for such long periods but that she felt free from stress for the first time in several months. “You push yourself to a limit,” said Ms. Poller, a 30-year-old Brooklyn resident, “but the experience gave me a lot of clarity and peace and helped me cope with my constant anxiety.”

Stays at monasteries such as Dai Bosatsu tend to be stricter than those at ashrams. At Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch, a picturesque 77-acre spot surrounded by woods in Woodbourne, for example, days begin at 6 a.m. with meditation and chanting, a two-hour yoga class and an hour of chores around the property. In the afternoons, ashram residents or outside speakers usually present workshops on topics such as “The Essentials of Yoga” and conduct question-and-answer sessions on meditation. But guests also have free time each day to go on staff-guided nature walks or relax in a 12-person wood-burning Russian sauna.

Grace Lee, a 32-year-old from New York City working in pharmaceutical research, stayed at Sivananda in October when a breakup with her long-term boyfriend, on top of an already stressful three-hour commute to and from work every day, began to affect her mental and physical health. “I was tense and fatigued all the time,” she said, “and the massages I was getting at fancy spas were doing nothing for the knots in my neck.”

Ms. Lee remembered the handful of yoga classes she had taken at various gyms as being relaxing and thought a few days of intense practice might be her ticket to unwinding. She came across Sivananda while researching yoga vacations, and though she’s an avid globetrotter who has visited 32 countries, she said that the ashram’s proximity to home was a deciding factor. “It’s stressful to go to the airport and worry about lost luggage and the other negatives of flying,” she said. “This is close to home, but it feels so far away and gives you the feeling that you’ve really disconnected from everything.”

The days are lush with spiritual offerings, but the accommodations at Sivananda and other such sites are in line with the most barebones European youth hostel. At Ananda Ashram, for instance, housing is either dorm-style, single-sex quarters that sleep four to six or semi-private rooms with two single beds. Bathrooms are shared.

What they lack in deluxe lodgings, however, ashrams and monasteries more than make up in meals, which can rival those at an upscale spa. They’re almost always buffet style vegetarian affairs and incorporate locally grown produce and organic products. On a recent Wednesday afternoon at Ananda’s high school-like dining hall, lunch featured six varieties of breads, including spelt and sprouted, roasted herbed potatoes, a vegan tomato bisque, orzo salad, pineapple-and-vegetable stir-fry, lemon bars, and apples and pears from a nearby farm. Nearly everything is made from scratch, including the ketchup, salad dressings and even tempeh.

Stays at ashrams and monasteries are all-inclusive and usually include accommodations, activities and three meals a day. Prices are as low as $60 a night for dorm-style rooms. Ms. Poller said the $200 cost for her weekend trip to Dai Bosatsu made the decision to go that much easier. “In the current economy, I worry about money,” she said. “I’m trying to find ways to go away without spending so much money, and this is really inexpensive.”

Although they’re in vacation settings, the residents emphasize, these are not hotels for travelers looking for a cheap place to stay for a few nights. Pravrajika Gitaprana said anyone making a reservation at Vivekananda Retreat was told that participation in the meditation sessions and classes was encouraged. And Jokei Kyodo, a resident at Dai Bosatsu, said the monastery is not a resort for guests looking to put their feet up. “I had a lady who called me recently and said she had a few extra vacation days she needed to use up,” she said. “We want people to come here and make a commitment to our Zen practice, which isn’t exactly comfortable.”

And while all the monasteries and ashrams surveyed said they weren’t attempting to convert guests to any particular religion or guru and only wanted to provide spiritual solace, many guests find the getaways alluring enough to make a second trip. Ian Reclusado, a 28-year-old project manager in account sales from Brooklyn, stayed at Zen Monastery over a weekend in October and intends to go back for an intense weeklong session that involves 10 hours of meditation a day, and both Ms. Poller and Ms. Lee found their visits to Dai Bosatsu and Sivananda so beneficial that they’ve already returned for more stays.

Still, some say one visit is sufficient to give them what they were searching for. “It’s not like I’m a die-hard Buddhist after this,” said Mr. Malkmus of his weekend at Zen Mountain. “I wanted to get away from the permanent noise in New York City and get a break, and that’s exactly what I got.”

THE DELIGHTS OF SILENCE

Ananda Ashram, Monroe (845-782-5575; www.anandaashram.org). Late risers will appreciate the 8 a.m. start time to most days. The ashram holds several kinds of yoga classes, including hatha, anusara and vinyasa, and has a theater that shows dance performances and plays.

Blue Cliff Monastery, Pine Bush (845-733-4959; www.bluecliffmonastery.org). This Vietnamese Buddhist monastery opened in June 2007 in an old conference center. Meals are vegan, and students and those 65 and older get a discount on overnight stays.

Dai Bosatsu Zendo, Livingston Manor (845-439-4566; www.daibosatsu.org). Open to guests from March through June and September through November, for monthly Introduction to Zen retreats. Everyone must adhere to the 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls, work practice and silence.

Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, Woodstock (845-679-5906; www.kagyu.org). Days at this Woodstock monastery begin at 5 a.m. with chanting and meditation followed on weekends by Buddhist teachings. Afternoons repeat the morning schedule.

Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch, Woodbourne (845-436-6492; www.sivananda.org). Founded in 1976 on the principles of hatha yoga, the ashram offers four hours of yoga a day in this style. It also has special programs, such as juice fasting and family weeks.

Vivekananda Retreat, Ridgely, Stone Ridge (845-687-4574; www.ridgely.org). It has twice daily meditation sessions and often offers classes on yoga sutras or Vedantic scriptures but builds in four hours of unstructured time a day.

Zen Mountain Monastery, Mount Tremper (845-688-2228; www.mro.org). In addition to retreats, guests can visit this 230-acre property on most Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings for an introduction to meditation and Buddhism.

© The New York Times. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Unlimited Resources

I completely know what Rob Brezsny is talking about in my horoscope below.  And it's interesting to experience the expansion I am feeling inside against my own fears and limitations.  It's a little ungrounding, at first to expand, and then all of a sudden, I see that my territory spans universes, not just the ground under my feet.  Hare OM!

See below:

http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/leo.html

Cause and Effect

As I chanted Patanjali's Yoga Sutras yesterday - I was struck by one and read its translation by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati.  The sutra explained that when a "cause" is changed then the effect will change.  It struck me as so extraordinarily simple, yet completely challenging.  Why challenging?  Because it is only through great awareness and meditation practice that we even know our own "causes."  

Why do we do the things we do?  Think the ways we think?  Emote the ways we emote?  React or respond in the ways that we do?  What are our motivations?

Do we act out of fear or do we act out of love?  Fear and love are two main "causes" behind "effects."  I am afraid, therefore I hide.  Or I am in love, therefore I go inward.  Two very similar actions - hiding and going inward - yet completely different because of the intentions or causes behind them.

I'm reminded of John Friend telling us that as teachers of yoga we should set an intention at the beginning of class and stick to this intention.  He explains that there are many good intentions but sticking to one in a class will steady the students on one-pointedness.

 

So I watch - every single step of the way, I witness with great sweetness and forgiveness to myself and all beings.  So that I understand how it is that I can change karmas that no longer serve me into moksha or liberation.  It is an intriguing and beguiling work - because as Nisargadatta Maharaj explains, it's not in us to "change" or do "anything" - we are simply participants in a great big ocean of consciousness.  But in our witnessing - we can change our "motivation," "intention," and "attitude" behind all of the automatic and spontaneous actions, emotions, thoughts and dramas of our lives.  And the effects can magically and beautifully change for the better.

Immortal Beloved - A Yogini's perspective on the Twilight series

I've been quite taken by the Twilight series, I must admit. But I'll have to say that I read books a little differently than what meets the eye - perhaps it's all my training in mythology and mysticism with Caroline Myss, professors in college and in high school. I remember one of my philosophy teachers in high school - how the class brutalized him when he dissected all our of fairy tales from a psychological perspective. "Don't ruin our fairy tales!" I found that rather than ruin fairy tales, they took on greater life and meaning when viewed from the symbolic, mythological and psychological perspectives. So from there, I went on to devour all of Joseph Campbell's books on myths.

One of the grandest things that Meyer, the writer of the Twilight does is bring myth to everyday life. Frankly, this is more in keeping with truth than it is in keeping with fiction. If we count our dreams as part of our real life - which they are. Or really, more aptly, our dreams and our waking life our part of the grand illusion of our so-called "real" life. Ah - take a bite out of that one!

Crunch. Crunch. We eat the apple - and have mortality. So these books are about immortal beings - vampires - that love immortal humans. They love them so much that they refrain from killing them. They go against their natures and support and protect them. Okay - how does that parallel with our day to day existences as humans?

Well, I think of Thich Nhat Han - the great Buddhist monk - who teaches this about violence: "If you want to stop the violence in the world, then watch the violence in your self and keep it in check. Choose love." And I think that one of the most compelling things about the Twilight series is the love story between Edward and Bella - the main protagonists - the vampire and the human. The immortal and the mortal - it is a reflection of our own work as humans with our own consciousness, actions, thoughts, deeds and words to make sure that they come from a place of love - even though we have the strength, power and ability to destroy ourselves and each other. Meyer captured this beautifully.

She also weaves the myth of the werewolf - what is a werewolf? Somehow in downward facing dog lately, I think of downward facing wolf. One of the remarkable things about these books is that I can finish them in one or 2 days. And they're big thick, honking books. But then again, I am what one would call an avid, voracious reader. What is a werewolf? It is the blend of our animal instincts with the human in us. And what are the yoga postures? Well, I've always seen them mostly as animal postures. And that someday I'll make a chart of our ontogeny/phylogeny, evolution, embryology side-by-side with the yoga postures and you'll see that they're just a repeat of our evolution from one-celled organism to multi-cellular bi-ped.

Good stuff. I could probably go on and on about the symbology in these books, same with Harry Potter - and the magic they weave in these stories with the magic we weave out of ourselves through yoga and spiritual practices. But I have to go to work.

Where I create more myths. The myth of advertising. The myth of life. Hare OM. Tat sat.

The Wish-Fulfilling Tree

Tis the season for wish-fulfillment.  Gaze at this picture which I found online at www.kheper.net/topics/chakras/Hrit.htm.   In the center of the heart chakra is the wish-fulfilling tree.  And here's the reason we practice yoga so much.  We shine and shine away at all the layers that keep us from seeing that in our very hearts is the key to all of our dreams coming true.

I love the lines that I get to near the end of chanting the Guru Gita about it being the wish-fulfilling tree that makes sure that all your dreams and fantasies come true (the good ones, see).  So throughout this holiday season, perhaps we can give the gift of our yoga practices for the benefit of all beings - throughout all of the universes.  As Caroline Myss says, eventually we will all understand that the greatest gifts we can give each other are the gifts of prayers, healing, blessings and good intentions.  The material world will be secondary in our way of looking at things and we will look and give first through "the eyes of source" as we lend our selves to the world. 

Lokhah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu.

Tapasya - the heat of yoga practice

This morning as I practiced hatha yoga and chanted the Guru Gita, I watched as a storm of questions, inspirations and "to-do" lists coursed through the mind.  And throughout the watching, I saw myself multi-task through a series of Asanas - half lotus, seated spinal twist in half lotus, while chanting the Gita.  Through it all I kept hearing the Sanskrit word "tapasya."  Tapas means "heat" and "tapasya" is the discipline of creating heat through practice.  Heat causes food to cook.  It is a major force in transformation.  Yoga, ultimately, and its practices are for transformation towards bliss.

In my practice I have had to find the right temperature to "cook" the body in yoga - so that proper transformation can happen.  And because of the thousand energies passing through me - it can feel like the heat of a thousand suns. 

Yet, the heat of the practice is magical.  Stuff happens.  So much creativity happens.  Everything that seemed daunting at one point - suddenly become the simplest things in the world.  Worries drop.  Anxieties drop.  All becomes clear.

So is the tapasya worth it?  Absolutely.  Is there endless tapasya for yogis and yoginis?  Yes, absolutely.  Enlightenment is as indelible as a lacewing's breath.  We must prepare and practice.

In line with finding the right temperature for transformation is my Leo horoscope a la Rob Brezsny, who seemed to be on the same level of consciousness as I was this morning:

'"It's better to be clumsy than clever," says an ancient Chinese book called Poets' Jade Splinters, "better plain than affected, better crude than weak, better eccentric than vulgar." That's a good prescription for you to use in the way you live your life in the coming days, Leo. Here's another observation from the same text that should also be helpful: "Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness." That suggests you've got to work hard and discipline yourself in order to earn the right to inspiration, but often the inspiration flows in when you're goofing off or giving yourself some slack. '

It takes energy and heat to grow beautiful flowers like the ones pictured.  As I just learned from my Ayurveda study courses with Dr. Frawley, flowers are recent in evolutionary history - and came, in a sense, to bring us healing in the form of beauty.  This is why essential oils from flowers are used so much in therapy.  And evolution requires effort.  But here's the thing about the fruits of our efforts, as Rob Brezsny and The Bhagavad Gita concur:  it's not in the hard work that you often get the rewards.  It's in the moments when you are not looking, not desiring, not wanting - when we are completely at ease, relaxed - that the inspirations come. 

Childhood Friends by Rumi

Childhood Friends
Rumi

You may have heard, it's the custom
for Kings to let warriors stand on
the left, the side of the heart, and
courage.. On the right, they put the
Chancellor, and various secretaries,
because the practice of bookkeeping
and writing usually belongs to the
right hand.

In the center, the Sufis, because in
meditation they become mirrors.
The King can look at their faces
and see his original state.

Give the beautiful ones mirrors,
and let them fall in love with
themselves.

from Nirmala Devi's daily inspiration e-mails.  This one truly reminds me of Facebook and the magic with connecting old friends - and their beautiful faces.  Face book - we give each other mirrors on this site and let each other fall in love with our selves.  (beyond narcissism - if we know how to play)

The Center of Sound

This morning I got up and began my morning meditation and began to chant the bija (seed) mantras of the seven chakras (wheels of energy) in the body. I'm still chanting the seven sounds as I type this blog. You can see the Devanagri (Sanskrit letter) in the picture. The last sound is silence - which encompasses all sound including OM. I've come to see that OM is simply silence articulated. Silence has become such a grand symphony of sounds to me, that I love to spend plenty of time imitating the sounds I hear in the silence. The closest sounds - or at least, the ones that bring out more sounds are the Sanskrit sounds. It's sometimes difficult to introduce people to chanting - let's say, the Guru Gita - which when done speedily takes about 45 minutes but chanted slowly, can take an hour and half to two hours.

It's easier to introduce you to the seven seed sounds:

From the base of the spine:
1) Lam
2) Vam
3) Ram
4) Yam
5) Ham
6) OM
7) Silence

These aren't the elongated "aas" of American English. All of these are more of the short "uh"s. Lum, Vum, sort of - it's really the first a - short a - sound of Sanskrit.

You can learn Sanskrit in depth at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York. Sanskrit is offered every day of the week. You won't be disappointed. I've learned a lot from Bharati devi and Ma Bhaskarananda at Ananda Ashram. I'm still learning from them and continue to take what they've taught me and apply it in my everyday chanting and writing of Sanskrit. It's like weaving gold out of the air, the study and practice of this divine language.

This morning as I chanted the seed sounds while in Virasana (seated warrior pose) - a powerful realization came over me. I was pondering the effect certain people, situations, circumstances had over me. Intriguingly, I was looking at the point, feeling the energy of when I get overwhelmed by personalities. I was looking at when I got thrown off my center into someone else's tangle of fear and anxiety. And in the middle of the chant - as I felt each center of my body get energized, I heard Caroline Myss's words resonate with each bija mantra - "Nothing in the outside world has any authority over you."

I'm often intrigued by people telling me that I have "guts" for living life the way I do - a wild spirit that explores multifold experiences to the hilt. And I realize that I don't really see myself this way. What I see is someone who can't live otherwise. I see a person who can't live within the illusion of time and space so much that she allows time and space to strangle her. That's all.

Through my practices - and staying in the "center of sound" as I am more and more calling my practice of kirtan, chanting, Sanskrit studies, Ayurveda studies, yoga, that I am elevated outside the strangling points of illusion - of matter, time and space. Of course these things exist, within a certain context, and I honor their existence. But within the center of sound, I am free, and nothing sticks - no worries, fears, expectations, anxieties, desires to please - nothing sticks.

So then I can experience love - unadulterated, unconditional, uncompromising love - for no reason that love itself. I'll always remember Sting's words at a music awards show - which rings again and again to my heart and soul - "Music is it's own reward."

Sound is it's own reward. We don't chant Sanskrit to get awards - not even from the Gods, Gurus, Saints - we chant Sanskrit so that we can feel truth. And the utter truth is that our being, consciousness and bliss are their own rewards. Feel it.