Planting Seva seeds in Arabi; Down By The Riverside

  January 21, 2011

Arabi Altar in Swan River Community Center. "Like a tree, thats planted by the river, we shall not be moved."

  Last night was yet another heart felt triumph of joy, as we added our 4th location to include Arabi, LA. Arabi is located below the Lower 9th Ward, in St. Bernard's Parish. It is a close knit neighborhood that is still clearly recovering from the after effects of Hurricane Katrina, and driving there, it is a clear reminder of something that seems so foreign and far away now for so many of us. Truly, in all of my years of teaching here in New Orleans, I would have never pictured this day that "da Parish" would welcome, want, and encourage the perhaps esoteric healing that comes from India in the form that we bring it, with respect to the real deal and yet still implemented into our modern lives...juicy chants,  progressive and bold yoga philosophy, loving meditation, and physical exercise, the asanas. Yet, quite the contrary! Last night, we had 80 new students sign our guest log, and we had around 20 Swan teachers come support us. Good thing, as many of the teachers had to manage the hallways, and translate our yoga class, which streamed out each end of the hall, to the entrances. We had people doing yoga in our back room closet, and in the desk area. There was so much high vibration and enthusiasm in the air, that it humbled me. It humbled us all, the support and encouragement that we felt.

 *Co owners in the front room, Haiyan Khan, Michele Baker, and Keith Porteous

    This new center will be a community center, and is donation based. We are planting seeds of SEVA in Arabi. Seva is a Sanskrit word, translated as "compassion in action". It is a "kriya", which means it is a cleansing action, or flipped around, it means that by doing purifying things, the action itself becomes pure. This begins to permeate all of our actions as a result. We become far more conscious of our alignment of all actions, being steeped in them fully, and with all of our hearts.
   A tricky part of Seva is also the idea that we are only "in" the act itself, as that is all there really is, and all that we have. In the full absorption of "now", we are not seeking an approximated, controlled outcome, and have no pressing expectations, or future plans that we are attached to in the result of our actions. This is one of my favorite lessons that comes from the Bhagavad Gita. "act without expectation for the fruit of your action, and this will create a pure action". Not see easy, huh? Yes, not so easy.
So, with our Seva Center, we are living in total faith, and creating an opportunity for us to learn what it is like to just enjoy the work, the now, and the community, in service. That is all! With this, we trust that we are aligned with Spirit and the great Cosmic order of all things, and that by aligning in this co-participation, it will indeed work out, free of disappointment, mixed motives, conscious or not, and the mistake of blocking all that Spirit wants to give. Perhaps it does not exactly turn out as we would have pictured. I myself would never have exactly imagined a Swan River in Arabi, yet, it's a good thing that we were open to receive the fruit of the results, as this is better than I/we could have ever imagined. Being in the heart of now, it allowed it to happen, as I nor anyone else did not squelch the flow of this great gift.
   The last song that we sang after Savasana was a Johnny Cash gospel favorite..."I shall not be moved". 100 people in the lower lower 9 were singing this song with all of their determined hearts. We changed some of the words to go like this "Glory Hallelujah WE shall not be moved, this yoga studio, by the Mississippi River, WE are not moving..." OM OM OM
It rattled all of St. Bernard Parish with high vibrations to sing this song and to extend it out to our community. Community truly is the most important part of our yoga practice. It teaches us to share. Sharing, and getting closer, makes us all  stronger. Always. We are so honored to share, and to learn from the yogic path of Seva down by the riverside.

PS Did I mention it is such a heartfelt story that ABC's "Good Morning America" wants to come tour it, learn about Seva, and do some yoga with us in our studio? January 24th, 2011 at 5am CST. Check it!

The Mayan Star Children; Telepathic Teachings from Tulum, MX

 January 7, 2011

  Twelve light filled yogis joined me this year on our annual New years eve yoga retreat in Tulum, MX, where the energy is truly beginning to vibrate at higher frequencies with the end of their calendar drawing near. I love visiting Mexico and the Yucatan for so many reasons... the food, day of the dead art, the Mayan temples, the sacred cenotes, and the crystal clear beaches. The people are so warm and loving, and especially where we stay, at Uno Astro Lodge, there is a sacred Galactic community forming like no other I have experienced in my travels yet. The Astro Lodge is like a portal, where you feel more apt to receive healing, clarity, and  telepathic information, honor your body as a temple through dance, flying yoga, meditations, and lots of song.
  Each year we go we receive new lectures about the concept of time and 2012. The Mayan Long count, 26,000 years, was our last teaching. The Mayans live off of an organic, natural calendar, ruled by the moon, with 13 months representing the 13 times the moon circles the earth (instead of 12 unnatural months). This gives us 28 days to each month, in synchronic, cosmic order, providing evenness and steadiness instead of random numbers each month, using nature as a reference, as well as the natural gestation process of humans, as we align with our celestial bodies. The Mayans were inviting us to align with the preciousness of the now, in a more radial, cyclical reality, as oppose to being ruled by a linear, uneven, and confusing one based on paying our taxes. As the rulers of time, we align more fully with the atmosphere of our mind and of the Cosmic mind in this setting.

   A Mayan long count is 1/5 of a procession of equinoxes, or 26,000 years. On Winter Solstice of 2012, this long count is ending. With it, it is believed that the planet will experience a serious shift in social, environmental, and governmental changes, as well as serious inner uncoverings and unveilings of our own, so that we are primed for such a drastic movement in time and can handle it.
  A very large part of our retreat was to create offerings of our own blind spots and darkness and to invite for their extractions with great compassion for one another. These blind spots make it very difficult to really see or experience the now completely. This is what the "Kali Yuga", the cycle we are in now, is all about. It is a shorter period of time than any other yuga, where everything appears more chaotic, events seem faster and unorganized, and we feel like we may be getting spun in a Cosmic perculator. The Kali yuga is inviting us to activate our complete intelligence and Cosmic consciousness of the heart, and to stay centered amidst the struggle of the last remnants of darkness getting pulled out of us.
   The Mayan Calendar was precisely measured by keenly observing the stars, and honoring that all of us are star children, coming from this luminosity. As we link to what is light filled and  natural, we are synchronized with nature, and each window of frequency of the day can be utilized for our greater potential, as a powerful allie in our development. Once we are noticing more synchronicity, we are re-membering the Cosmic plan, not as a coincidence, but as a powerful, enchanting, and magical gift not to be overlooked it's perfection of Union.  We no longer feel desperate to grasp onto the magic of what moves us, for we are being moved all the time, in each moment.

   The "dark rift" in the mayan philosophy is the black hole within the milky way in Mayan philosophy. The dark rift is Kali, the birth canal, or womb, or which we all must enter to re-birth ourselves into a new level of consciousness through a rite of passage. The milky way is Siva, the Soma, the milky nectar of supreme awakening, surrounding Kali in the sky. This is the most expansive fractal that we know of, and entering the birth canal, there is more. We are a small fractal of this. As above, so below, and the invitation is the entering of this, with all of our tools, our intentions, our hard work. This is the total Galactic alignment, happening within us, and around us, in nature, and above us, in our solar system, and beyond.

   The North pole in the central channel of the body is the polestar in the sky. As we clear our obscurations, we will see more clearly. We will see the vast potential of the stars within our body. The North star is also our bindu point, our third eye seed of awakening,  activated by offering our confusion, cloudiness, despair. We can not remember that we are physic without first doing this, and the Mayans (and ancient yogis and indigenous cultures) believe that we are all telepathic beings.
  Televisions, telephones, computers show us what it is that we are already capable of doing from the inside. Lets begin now to access some of the teachings of our origins of the stars, being more perceptive than ever to a clear direct message from the inside out, as star children. So much is coming, and this will make the ride smooth, just like the essence of the cycles already happening in nature, it is already happening within us also.