Yogafly2

our plays at Ananda Ashram

I do miss our plays at Ananda Ashram - we would put on the most wonderful shows directed by Dr. Jayanti Patel, our dear friend.  And somehow Andree Stolte put on a character that said:

"Welcome to the ME Yoga Center."

"At ME Yoga, we will concentrate all our attention on ME."

And the dialogue - I do have to get her transcript.  This particular play was called "Time Wrap" - because of a misunderstanding of the word, "Warp."  Even this is so perfect.  We all dealt with the different ideas of time.  And I played the "Dancer."  In between each act, I put on a different costume and danced on stage.  

From then on, Dr. Patel called me, "Dancer!"  And would ask me where I learned to dance.  musical theater elementary school.  didn't everyone go to musical theater elementary school?  It was nice to learn that life is indeed a musical.  How I miss Peter Papazoglou who would sing out musicals with me in boring meetings at ye old ad agency.  I mean, we have to sit there with these Excel documents for hours, we ought to sing together, now, yes?

A Cosmic Event - Music and Dramatic Readings of the Mystic Poets - in New York City

From Marvin Suval's e-mail.  Wish I could bilocate --- be both here in Texas and NYC for things like this:

By now, you already know that we have put together an historic celebration, "A Cosmic Event – Music and Dramatic Readings of the Mystic Poets!” Right now, tickets are available only to close friends of Ananda Ashram.  But, within one week, tickets will be open to the public viaFacebook and other networking.

 

We expect to sell out. Don’t be late; don’t be disappointed!  Today, right now, go to www.tabla.org/events.html , scroll down to November 21 and reserve your tickets.

 

Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations are $50 and $40 for students & seniors with valid ID. Bring your confirmation email printout with you to the performance as your proof of reservation.

 

Again, the date is Saturday, November 21, at 7:30 pm.  Presented by Chhandayan Center for Indian Music, this one-time only performance will take place at 4 West 43rd Street, New York City (between 5th & 6th avenues, closer to 5th) in the Ballroom on the ground floor.

 

Gather your friends and reserve your space today.  Come and be inspired by the musical range and brilliance of our world-renowned guest artists! Don’t miss what is certain to be a most extraordinary evening.

 

Remember, advanced purchase of admission is highly recommended, www.tabla.org/events.html

 

Hope to see you on November 21st,

 

Jeanne Gilbert

Event Coordinator, 646-924-8845, gilbert.jm@gmail.com

P.S. See our flyer attached.

P.P.S.  If you know you won't be able to attend the concert but would still like to help, let us know and we'll send you a pledge card now.  And then, on the night of  November 21st, remember to pause and look up at the stars.  Watch them beaming a great big

THANK YOU - just for you!

dum de dum de dum deee dum dee dum dum

bam dee dee bum bum bum dee dee bum bum bum 

lam vam ram yam ham om

lam vam ram yam ham om

lam vam ram yam ham om

lam vam ram yam ham om

ode to not doing anything at all.  or just being.  really.  with my parents right now in the house of the Land of Sugar.  Am realizing that we have been part of this neighborhood for so long that we take each other in a sweet place of "for granted."  the Judge next door - the professional golfer across the street - and this quiet only broken up by our own noise and no one else's.

I love hearing my mom talk about medicine - because it's fascinating how this institution looks at the body and how YOGA looks at the body-mind-spirit complex.  And how you need checks and balances in medical systems and institutions only when you don't LISTEN to your body's needs.  And you become a bit of a slave to the institution that needs you in order to keep it going.  YET - at the same time, there are the ones - the doctors who can look at the greater picture and not be consumed by it all.  I sit with my mother so that we can check each other's egos and in hopes that neither one of us becomes overly fanatical about anything.  We have great fun in it.  And we then wax poetic about Kelsey Grammar and what a genius he is for a while.  Or I tease her about my inferior breast wanting to become anterior (this is after talking about tumors and malignancies of the breast.)  Or we go watch the movie FAME at precisely 1:10 pm we will leave the house to make it to the movie theater on time.

Listen.  to my body's needs right now includes - doing what feels like almost absolutely nothing.  And just sitting quietly with this love in my heart.

the beauty of silence

is that music sounds better in between the rests.

I ran to Ananda Ashram for the silence.  And I realize that the Cosmic Temple and its power had a lot to do with never having any sound in there except mantra and silence. 

and all this coming from a grand poobah noisemaker herself...

Thursday night chats

I got home from an illumined evening of chat with Babaji at Omkari's (Anita Stoll Gottfried) house.  Babaji is her Guru and every Thursday evening he gets online and chats with his sangha (community) throughout the U.S.  It's incredibly powerful to sit with an enlightened being who is embodied (in a human body).

Tonight, I learned so much about how to use the difficult parts of life to BURN up karma.  The mantra, the meditation, the breath into each part of the body where the difficulty arises is the key.  The situations that arise that bring up a whole heck of a lot of pain and suffering are the points of focus and rather than running away from them, denying any of it, you meditate, chant, hatha yoga, breathe into each to burn it up.

Babaji explained that this was Swami Rudrananda's (Rudi) way of teaching.  He could help you focus on exactly what you needed to work on and help you burn it all up.  But the key thing is that you have to participate in the teaching, in the connection, in the burning up.  It's something really.

After each chat, Omkari and I sit in meditation and tonight, there it was, like my whole life shifted around this night's teaching.  This evening of chat.  And there's another level of existence I can now work from.  But it's all very intriguing to just sit with.  Which I have to do now that I slept all afternoon.  Sleeping all afternoon just means I wake up at 4 am to chant, meditate and Yoga.  Which might sound like a dreamy, ecstatic experience eh?

Yes, partially.  Yes, it is.  but on another level there's the gunk I have to wade through to get to the light.   

As Babaji said, real love is such that your heart chakra opens and love just shines out of you.  Real love isn't dependent on any outer circumstance, person, situation, etcetera, it is "non-attached."  But it doesn't mean that the heart just opens like that.  Get it?  

It still takes hanging out with other people dedicated to opening their hearts or who have experienced the opening or are just the embodiment of love itself in order to get it for yourself.  And then voila, all you see is love everywhere...ageless, deathless, timeless

YOGALife

Lauran and I are writing up the YOGALife curriculum - or more appropriately, channeling, breathing, opening, dancing, singing, feeling, grooving the YOGALife curriculum -

and as I meditate on the practical uses of YOGA, I think about when I channeled this huge bout of anger that erupted inside into a perfect handstand that lasted for a while in the middle of the room.

Yoga and Anger Management - there's another class.  I can see so many of my friends who have dealt with my rages laugh at this one coming from me.  And then the other half who have never ever seen me erupt go - but I've never seen you angry - all I ever see you do is laugh.  That's the beauty.  My buddy Damien Davis calls my little eruptions "sacred rage."  And really, they are never unwarranted.  Damien always helps me understand this emotion.   But truly, I mostly channel this stuff into creating more beauty.   So much anger just comes from "frustration."  So you take the frustration and make ART out of it and voila!

BEAUTY.  BEAUTY.  BEAUTY of a Handstand held in static time as the fires cooled down in the body.  And I can't even remember what set off the anger in the first place. 

And my Dad - my first therapist.  Who usually sings and plays golf when he has an inkling of a tantrum coming on.

And then Mom - who is the opposite.   She just rants when she wants.  She's such a Pitta dosha (fire constitution).  And I can see how powerful this is too.  She called me today and basically figured out my life as she helped save the lives of others.  I asked her what she was doing when I was talking to her and she said, "looking at slides, multi-tasking, thinking about a thousand things."  And she somehow managed to get in the wee conversation what I was focusing my energy on - YOGALife - and have my dad and I eaten enough?  "why can't you work both in Houston and Austin?"  "why do you need to pay for an apartment in Austin when you could live with us?" And then she just releases it all when I say, "ummm, Mom, I live and work in Austin now."  Oh okay.   

Yoga and Witnessing the Multi-tasking Mind

There's another class.  Hare OM tat sat.

Love Yoga Co-op is featured studio on Yogamates.com

Love Yoga Co-Op has been selected to be a FEATURED STUDIO on Yogamates.com! We will be a FEATURED STUDIO from Sept. 28th to Oct 4th, 2009.

How Kali came to be in the Devi Mahatmyam

This one's for Sheilagh who asked...

Starting this past Saturday, it has been Navaratri - 9 days of Devi (goddess) honoring.  At Ananda Ashram, we chant the Devi Mahatmyam.  And I like to always be in tune with my spiritual home, Ananda Ashram - and in tune with Guruji.  So I chant this on my own and know that everyone is in the Cosmic Temple also chanting this.  I can see Radha ma blowing the conch shell and Bharati devi leading with Guruji on CD.  And I'll have to say, the nadam is so loud after each chapter that I chant - that I get inebriated with love and honor. 

Anita Stoll (Omkari) and our friends celebrated the first day of Navaratri this past Saturday at her house - (the mini Ashram in Clarksville).  My Devi pictures are over there (Sarasvati and Laksmi) along with Anita's Devi murtis.  And we began with Durga.  Durga is all mighty - and helps you move through any difficulty.  Durge Durge Durge Jai Jai Ma.  Jagatambe Jai Jai Ma.  "There are nine forms of Durga which Brahma himself declared..."

So who are these Devis?  What is their significance?
They are all aspects of the Devi known as Mahamaya - this is where it's great to know some Sanskrit.  Maha means "great" and "maya" is illusion/delusion.  Fantastic news, everyone!  We are all deluded into thinking that the way we see the world is "right."  Mahamaya, though, has created this world - and can help you transcend it.  Very abstract really.  There's no straight answer to "how Kali came to be" - it's like asking how God came to be, but we look at what's written and meditate.

Here is Mahamaya described in the Devi Mahatmyam by Swami Jagadiswarananda of Sri Ramakrishna Math in Mylapore, Chennai in India:

"She is eternal, embodied as the universe.  By her all this is pervaded.  Nevertheless she incarnates in manifold ways; hear it from me.  When she incarnates herself in order to accomplish the purposes of the devas, she is said to be born in the world, though she is eternal."

"All powers of good and evil belong to her."

"According to the three gunas of Nature, Mahamaya takes three forms, Mahakali, Mahalaksmi, and Mahasarasvati, being her tamasika, rajasika and sattvika forms."

Tamas = darkness = Kali (the goddess of darkness between each star in the sky, as Ramakrishna explains)
Rajas = active, powerful energy = Laksmi (goddess of abundance)
Sattva = meditative sweetness = Sarasvati (goddess of communication and arts)

In Chapter VII -
Ambika (Durga) became "terribly angry" at her foes, "and in her anger her countenance then became as dark as ink."

"6.  Out from the surface of her forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with sword and noose."

And this is where the Devi Mahatmyam is just so wonderfully outrageously amazing - and a bit bloody - the asura (demon) Raktabija came forth to battle and from each drop of his blood that fell on the ground, arose another asura of his stature. 

But this just made the devi Candika laugh.  And she said to Kali (Camunda you know how I love to chant to Camunda - om aim hrim klim camundayai vicce svaha)  - open your mouth wide and swallow all the blood that issues forth from everyone she bludgeons.  And Kali drank Raktabija's blood. 

Cool babes huh?

The deal is this:  these Devis (babes) were beauty and love personified itself.  But this beauty and love did not keep the demons from striking at them.  And so the babes fought back.  And the message is very clear.  "We ladies created you, entire world of forms, humans, beings, demons, men and women alike, so we can swallow you back up." 

And you can see that it is explained that even the demons are slain by the Devis so that they can be placed in a higher more auspicious realm.  That there is great compassion for them. 

Bhakti Loveflow at Black Swan Yoga - Saturdays, 8:30 pm

Only when you are high from chanting do you come up with a name like "Bhakti Loveflow" for an event you are co-leading with Joshua Param Sevak Adair. 

Every Saturday night, 8:30 pm - http://www.blackswanyoga.com

Kirtan leaders will take turns leading.  Sumukhi will be up there conducting while she sings.  I often like to conduct - but in a more abstract way than usually prescribed.

I like to conduct insects and animals - and sometimes human beings in yoga class....

without music I would be mad crazy yo

I'm sort of paraphrasing my dad - who would never say the above.  but would say it in a mix of 4 languages and sounds of which I am very familiar.  He sang "when you wish upon a star" to us today.  Me, toby the dog, Circe the cat and God in all his/her myriad forms floating around the Sugar Land house.  Which my mother gave me the permission to turn into a yoga studio.  ah be careful what you say mama, I always take you up on your offers.  but then, what are good mamas and papas for?  You can turn our houses into any playland you want.  My favorite room growing up in the Philippines being the "music room" with its oxblood cool floors.

I chanted all day on Saturday - recording with David Messier, maestro, at his studio Same Sky.  www.same-sky.com.  He's definitely part of the tribe - that I think would say the above quote in similar words - but his own.  Because we all need our own words.  And it's good to make up new words - it's all I ever do.

This recording must be called Ananda - after all the bliss I collected at Ananda Ashram - through the divine chant from everyone there - and Guruji himself.   I keep hearing the Sanskrit alphabet CD with Guruji where he turned each letter into a mantra.  and did it so playfully - like there's no END to it.  And you just roll with Guruji when you chant - because he doesn't care what anyone sounds like.  And yet - it's all so damn beautiful in spite and because of this.