This evening we met @ the Rothko Chapel to experience the teachings of the Venerable Master Miao Tsan. I won't do the master an injustice by paraphrasing his teachings, instead I'll make a recommendation. On your journey on the path toward enlightenment, take the time to learn as much as you can from meditation masters in different traditions. It is my experience that there is no substitute for the darshan of being in the presence of one with a lifelong practice. It is also my experience that regardless the tradition, or the techniques incorporated, that the key is conscious awareness. 

Change your mind, change yourself. Change yourself, change your world. 

Shanti. Namaste. Deepest Blessings.

  S.

I used to know the minister of a church in Chicago. She had a saying that she used often: "If you spot it, you got it." This was a concept that was new to me and I found it interesting. In yoga we say, "You can only see that which you are relative to." No matter how we express this concept, it simply means that if we/me/you find ourselves judging another person, we are only able to see that aspect of their personality because we ourselves possess that exact same attribute. "If you spot it, you got it."

Have you ever found yourself in a family situation where one of your relatives seemed, let's say, particularly irritating? Perhaps you found that person to be controlling and critical. Or maybe @ your place of work there was or is one person in particular that you feel the entire organization would be better off without? Do you find that this person disturbs you to the point that you go home running the behavior of this individual over and over in your mind until you are completely distracted thinking about them? Did you ever wonder why? Did you ever find yourself blaming them internally for the irritation in your own mind? I think you see where this is going. It's not about them.

As we meditate we begin to see things more clearly. We judge less. When we do find ourselves judging, we are able to observe the workings of our own mind and notice what the mind likes to attach itself to. And then we can ask the question, "Why is my mind attaching itself to that thought-form?" We learn. We let go.

Every single being that comes into our lives is there to teach us. It's not an accident. They are there for a period of time, however long that period is. I am a being living in a human body. If you are reading this then probably you are a being living in a human body, too. Humans are mirrors. They show us what we need to see and understand in ourselves. Do we see compassion? Generosity? Kindness? Do we see ignorance? Anger? Cruelty?

One of the finest teachers I have ever known was not a human being. She was a little brown dog with soft, fat feet and floppy ears. She taught me forgiveness. She had a love forcefield as large as a city block. She knew how to meditate on loving-kindness and she taught me the value of the transcendental. In her I found that my heart center could open and that I could give and receive love unconditionally, freely. I learned patience. I understood contentment. Through this small, perfect teacher I learned all these things. Because I saw these qualities in her, I became aware of them in myself.

Blessings, blessings everywhere. Blessings, blessings everyone.

Deepest Shanti,
  S.

“Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.”
~ Veronica A. Shoffstall

“Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror.”
~ Ken Keyes

“Your task is not to seek for Love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
~ Rumi, thirteenth century Sufi poet

"Don't ever criticize yourself. Don't go around all day long thinking, 'I'm unattractive, I'm slow, I'm not as smart as my brother.' God wasn't having a bad day when he made you... If you don't love yourself in the right way, you can't love your neighbour. You can't be as good as you are supposed to be."
~ Joel Osteen

Meditation is simple in theory. It is effortless single pointed concentration. The result of deep meditation is an intuitive feeling state. We meditate not for what we can get, but for what we can let go of: fear, anxiety, stress, depression and more. It takes practice to learn to meditate. It certainly is not a passive activity. No one can do it for you. It doesn't happen to you. Daily practice, dedication and, yes, study and perhaps lifestyle changes will be needed. You will know the moment you are meditating, because it won't be like anything else. It will feel sweet. Once you are truly meditating, it will feel so nice that you won't want to jump up right away and do something else. The more frequently you meditate, the more you will begin to see a difference in your state of mind. You will become calmer. The personality will soften. You will become more compassionate. 

If you want to change your world, change yourself.

Shanti,
  S.

This is a topic that is little understood in our culture, so there are many misconceptions. Mantra is a subject I rarely teach, because it can be difficult for the beginner to understand. Hence, it is also one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, lessons to give, for me as a teacher of meditation. I especially enjoyed teaching today's group.

As I mentioned during our lesson this afternoon, mantra and meditation are not the same as relaxation. Of course, a person should be completely @ ease before meditating. The repetition of any meaningless sound can induce a state of relaxation. We've all had moments where we've fired off a bunch of tra-la-la-la-la's in our lives, or some similar sound. It is fun and can feel fantastic, but this is not mantra. Nor is dogmatically repeating the same thing over and over. I'm certainly not advocating uttering meaningless sounds or mindless dogma in order to relax and meditate. Quite the contrary.

So, what is mantra? It is a genuine sound vibration that exists in the causal and astral realms (not just the physical realm). When properly given and utilized it leads to a state of stillness. It fixes the mind upon peace and higher states of consciousness are possible. This state can and will lead to meditation. And all meditation is indeed transcendental.

There are Four Basic types of mantra. These are,

1) Vedic mantras
2) Upanishadic mantras
3) Tantric mantras
4) Puranic mantras

Today, we practiced 3 mantras:

*AUM: The Basic Holy Mantra

*OM Shanti, Shanti, Shantih: the Mantra of Tranquility and Peace

*OM Namo Bhagavate Vasu Devaya: the Kriya Mantra
This is the mantra traditionally given to all kriya-jyothis (wisdom-seekers) and kriya-bans (devotion-seekers). This meaning is difficult to understand on a surface level, but it is understood to mean, "Oh, Infinite Lord, Indweller in the hearts of all beings, unto You do I turn my consciousness." It can also be directly translated as, "OM. Hail! Lord of the Breath!"

Any of these three mantras could be the subject of an entire hour or the practice or an entire lifetime. I chose these three for their distinct benefits to the beginning meditator. Chanting a mantra correctly and devoutly is of extreme importance. Mantra should not be practiced while participating in other activities, for instance washing dishes or taking out the garbage. The study of any given mantra on your being is to be done with the correct attitude. Given the complexity and variety of mantras that are available to the seeker, I can not go into enough depth in this blog to do the subject justice. What I would suggest instead is that you learn the correct pronunciation of each of these three mantras and then make the time to practice each one on your own. Choose a mantra that is meaningful to you and study it in depth. The temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago has several books on mantra as well as audio recordings to practice with. But @ some point, to truly get the meaning of a mantra, you are going to have to practice on your own without a recording. You will learn to chant the mantra in your own way and feel the mantra deep within your being. There is no substitute for this experience. It is simply like nothing else you have ever tried or will ever do. Below, I have pasted the link to the temple of Kriya Yoga.

http://www.yogakriya.org/

Feel free to contact them to obtain books, CD's and other material on mantra. 

Another source for listening to mantra is youtube. I've pasted links to recordings of three of the mantras we studied today below:

AUM

OM Shanti, Shanti, Shantih

OM Namo Bhagavate Vasu Devaya

The nice thing about youtube is that it is totally FREE. The problem is that there is a lot of advertising and, since anyone can post there, much misinformation. I could only find one post, for example,  w/ the correct pronunciation of the OM Shanti mantra and it is a scant 20 seconds long. However, my purpose for presenting the links was simply to make it easy for you to hear how the sanskrit words are pronounced, then you can turn the computer off and practice on your own. 

Of course, I would be delighted to give any of you a private lesson on mantra or any other subject pertaining to Kriya Yoga. We meet as a group every Tuesday and some Sundays. If those days and times are not convenient for you, I will make arrangements to meet with you privately @ a day and time that works better w/ your schedule. You can call, text or e-mail me 24/7 and I will get back to you as soon as possible to make arrangements to meet with you.

In the meantime, I leave you with these suggestions for practicing mantra. A quiet place of meditation is recommended. Find meaningful items to place in your meditation space to set the right vibration. Flowers or incense, are lovely. I do not recommend photos of human beings as these tend to be more of a distraction, from my experience. Before beginning any mantra, you may want to practice some pranayama to quiet the mind. Some teachers recommend reading from scriptures or other sources of inspiration. Poetry can be appropriate for some. Be certain to practice during a time when you are totally unrushed and don't have anything else planned. This is your time. Enjoy it. The whole purpose of practicing mantra is to find some degree of peace. Do not let yourself get hung-up on what the mantra literally means. It is the feeling that it brings to you that matters. Every mantric word does, of course, have a meaning, but it is the feeling that is evoked by you, through you, and by the repetition that is of greatest importance. And, after the chanting is finished, sitting with the feeling of it and letting go of everything else is where the true value is found. For this letting go, this state of bliss, is the meditative state.

Namaste,
  S.

We have a serious nutrition problem in this country. You've probably read that we have an epidemic of people that are obese and yet do not have enough to eat. There are multiple reasons for this. Without dwelling on the nutrition shortcomings of our culture, I'd like to share a simple observation: Most people don't know what nutritious food is. You don't need a lot of money or a 4 year degree to eat healthy. (In fact, many people w/ money AND 4 year degrees don't eat a proper diet.) All you need is correct information and access to fresh produce, and that may be hard to come by. Fortunately, we are blessed to live in a city that is surrounded by family farms. For only 6 dollars I bought all the produce you see in this photo. I picked it up from one of our local farmer's markets. You may not be able to tell, but those veggies are HUGE. I went home and in approximately 20 minutes prepared about 1/3 of the vegetables w/ spices, boiled some organic pasta, put it all together w/ pesto and a little goat cheese - voila! - I had a meal w/ leftovers and froze the remaining vegetables to prepare the following week. Even with the prepared pasta and pesto the actual meals I squeezed out of those ingredients cost pennies. And the most important part is that the food was not only extremely flavorful, it was packed w/ nutrients. 

Why am I going on about this? Quite simply, our ability to concentrate is affected by what we put into our bodies. And if we can't concentrate, we certainly can not meditate. Leave out the proper nutrients, throw in chemical additives and preservatives and you have a mess on your hands. I really just wanted to make a point. It doesn't take a lot of time and money to nourish your mind and body. Just the desire to seek out and prepare fresh produce. 

Want to find out where the Farmer's Markets are in Houston? Follow this link:

http://www.americantowns.com/tx/houston-local-food

Those of you adventurous enough to leave town and actually pick your own fruits and vegetables will find this link of interest:

http://www.pickyourown.org/TXhouston.htm

Attention carnivores and ovo-lacto vegetarians! To visit the actual farms that have natural, grass fed livestock with fresh eggs and dairy, follow this link:

http://www.eatwild.com/products/texas.html

To really understand what has happened to food in our industrialized society, I recommend reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History in Four Meals by Michael Pollan. There is no "weird trick" to eating healthy. Only simple, common sense.

Namaste,
  Sandy

First, let me say that as much as I have been enjoying our ample sunshine and dramatic thunderstorms this summer, it was nice to have a dry Tuesday evening. I missed sitting @ the Rothko Chapel and teaching meditation.

Since it has been sort of a long break, I had planned several things that I thought were pertinent topics to write about. But now that I am sitting here, I realize that this evening there is only one: nothing is worth losing your peace of mind over. That's really it. No good ever comes from letting ourselves become anxious or distraught. We don't make better decisions when we are emotional. In fact, studies have shown that a steady stream of cortisol in the body over a long period of time is damaging to our health. Things begin to improve when we remember that happiness is a choice we make and that joy is our natural state. You've probably heard the saying that attitude is everything. Well, it's true.

Sometimes people confuse being manic with happiness. They are very different. The flip side of mania is depression. Extreme emotional highs and lows are a symptom that something is out of balance. When we begin to feast on a steady diet of meditation, we experience what a balanced consciousness feels like. Having this experience helps us to become aware when we are not centered and make adjustments. Remembering the calm, feeling state that comes when we meditate helps us to bring that state of consciousness into our lives when we need it most. 

Practice, practice, practice.

Shanti, shanti, shantih.

  S.

When we sit a meditate, we are free. We release the attachment to pain. We let go of the idea of "no, I can't" and we become "yes, I can." Spiritual maturity means walking your own path and in doing so, we find bliss. True bliss. Not a cliche or wall street version of struggling for an idea that is supposed to be bliss, but the joy that is you. The real, actual you. The Self. 

Letting go is complete. It is an understanding that you are the creator of your own life. You do not need permission to be happy. No one - not me, not your family, not your friends - can tell you how to find happiness. It is already there within you, waiting to be rediscovered. Dream your dream. 

Shanti,
  S.

Concentration is a technique for balancing and centering the mind. Without concentration, there can not be meditation. And without meditation, one is inhibited from entering a state of quiet contemplation. Most human beings are out of balance with life. We may imagine that if our emotional state is all over the place then we are "really" experiencing life. From a yogic perspective, this is completely false.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna states, 'Arjuna, the practice of yoga is not for him that eats too much or eats too little; nor is it for him that sleeps to much or keeps awake excessively. He who moderates his eating, his work, his recreation, his sleep, he alone is capable of mastering yoga.'

There is a lovely book full of teaching stories from India that I would like to recommend. It is called: 

The Monkeys and the Mango Tree: Teaching Stories of the Saints and Sadhus of India by Harish Johari

The stories in this book are simple, yet profound and meant to be shared. I hope you will consider bringing a copy of this book home and sharing it w/ your family and loved ones.

Shanti,
  S.

This evening during the asana portion of our meeting, someone in our group remarked that she was having trouble executing a pose because she has tight quadriceps. I wanted to show her a pose that any beginner can do that has that issue, so I promised her that I would add it to my blog. Here are the step-by-step instructions for Half Cobra Pose (ardha-bhujangasan). In addition to being very beneficial for relaxing tight quads, this pose is an excellent pose for all muscles, ligaments, nerves of the legs, stomach, spine and arms. It is an easy pose to relax and stretch the entire body.

First, stretch your left leg back as far as possible. The right knee is bent w/ the foot flat on the floor. Place the right hand on the right knee, left hand and spine are bent slowly backward until left hand, spine and left leg look like a semicircle. Hold 3 seconds. Repeat w/ the left knee forward.