Gayatri Mantra

A mantra from the Rig Vedas.
It is considered one of the most ancient and sacred chants.

Om bhur bhuvah svah
tat savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyo yonah prachodayat

Through the coming, going and the balance of life
the essential nature which illumes existence is the adorable one 

may all perceive through subtle intellect
the brilliance of enlightenment

There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street,
and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.

Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.

Open your hands,
if you want to be held.

Sit down in this circle.

Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd's love filling you.

At night, your beloved wanders.
Don't accept consolations.

Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover's mouth in yours.

You moan, "She left me." "He left me."
Twenty more will come.

Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.
-RUMI

Aumakua

 Calling in some Animal Medicine...

Aligning with The Light Body

~* The Star Tetrahedron *~

 

This is the shape that "energetic inter-dimensional vehicles" manifest as. It is called the “merkaba” or “light-body.” Egyptian mysticism defines each syllable of Merkaba: “mer” as light, “ka” as spirit, “ba” as body. Merkavah is translated to mean chariot in Hebrew.  We are counter-rotating fields of Light energy. The Merkaba is the "chariot" that transports the spirit. Through this manifestation of spiraling energy, it is said that ascended masters would transcend to higher realms. 

A technique to further mystical exlporations is to meditate on the Star Tetrahedron spiraling around you, focusing on devotion and unconditional love.

 The true nature of the human Soul is to align with the Cosmos, becoming one with the Supreme Spirit that connects all aspects of the Universe. This is supreme inner-peace. To reach this goal, one must find co-ordination of their body, mind, senses, reason, and Self.

"Know the Atman (Self) as the Lord in a chariot, reason as the charioteer and mind as the reins.... The self, when united with the senses and the mind, the wise call the Enjoyer (Bhoktr). The undiscriminating can never reign in his mind; his senses are the like the vicious horses of a charioteer. The discriminating ever controls his mind; his senses are like disciplined horses...The man who has a discriminating charioteer to rain in his mind reaches the end of the journey- the Supreme Abode of the ever lasting Spirit."  -Kathopanisad (third chapter, first section)

Recognizing and surrendering to 
*The Spirit in all* 
is our most powerful tool. 
To get there we must overcome
*Desire*
and train our 
*Senses* and *Reason*
to not control the mind.

"Discipline yourself and destroy your deceptive enemy in the shape of desire" 

- Bhagavad Gita 3.42-43

Patanjali outlines 9 Obstacles and Distractions (Chitta Viksepa) to the control of the mind (Chitta Vritti):

1) Vyadhi: sickness which disturbs the physical equilibrium

2) Styana: lack of mental disposition for work

3) Samsaya: doubt or indecision

4) Pramada: indifference or insensibility

5) Alasya: laziness

6) Avirati: the rousing of desire when sensory objects possess the mind

7) Bhranti Darsana: false or invalid knowledge

8) Aladbha Bhumikatva: failure to attain continuity of throught or concentration so that reality cannot be seen

9) Anavasthitattva: instability in keeping concentration

 

 In order to do avoid distractions and gain control over the mind, BKS Iyengar instructs: constant practice and renunciation. As Yogis, we do not renounce the entire world and all action because e are given this body in the life to preform rightful action. What we do renounce is what takes us away from our path of rightful action: desires, bad influences, and the severe all the ties that bind you (release your fears!).

"in the night of all beings the disciplined and tranquil man wakes to the light" 

Song of the Soul

 

 Song of the Soul

I am neither ego not reason, I am neither mind nor thought,
I cannot be heard nor cast into words, nor by smell nor sight ever caught:
In light and wind I am not found, nor yet in earth and sky -
Consciousness and joy incarnate, Bliss of the Blissful am I.

I have no name, I have no life, I breathe no vital air,
No elements have molded me, no bodily sheath is in my lair:
I have no speech, no hands and feet, nor means of evolution -
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss in dissolution.

I cast aside hatred and passion, I conquered delusion and greed;
No touch of pride caressed me, so envy never did breed:
Beyond all faiths, past reach of wealth, past freedom, past desire,
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss is my attire.

Virtue and vice, or pleasure and pain are not my heritage,
Nor sacred texts, nor offerings, nor prayer, nor pilgrimage:
I am neither food, nor eating, nor yet the eater am I -
Consciousness and joy incarnate, Bliss of the Blissful am I.

I have no misgiving of death, no chasms of race divide me,
Nor parent ever called me child, no bond of birth ever tied me:
I am neither disciple nor master, I have no kin, no friend -
Consciousness and joy am I, and merging in Bliss is my end.

Neither knowable, knowledge, nor knower am I, formless is my form,
I dwell within the senses but they are not my home:
Ever serenely balanced, I am neither free nor bound -
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss is where I'm found.

- Author unknown (this poem is published in BKS Iyengar's Light on Yoga)

Seaweed Flowing in the Ocean

At College Cove in Humboldt County, CA... Watching seaweed attached to a rock flow around with the ocean. I found a lot of beauty in watching this natural form of flow. The way the ocean sways one end of the seaweed while it is totally bound to a rock on the other. 

The Mantra of the Goddess Green Tara

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA 

Tare represents deliverance from mundane suffering: Tare is the feminine aspect of compassion in Buddhism

Tuttare represents deliverance to the spiritual path: individual salvation, liberation from fear, external dangers and delusions

Ture represents the culmination of the spiritual path: deliverance to the path of universal salvation, end of suffering, liberation from ignorance

Svaha a sanskrit word meaning "let it be grounded in the physical"

Tara is the great liberator, "swift one" (due to her quick response to those who request her aid), she specializes in overcoming whatever obstacles form in our lives, and gives protection against fear and danger.

She transcends the polarity of masculine and feminine. Although in the form of a woman, she is the gateway into deep inner experiences which have no color, form or sex.

"Samsaric beings! Cling not to worldly pleasures. Enter the great city of liberation!"