SF Green Festival: Brian Weller on Sustainability and the Vedic Sciences

Last Saturday I attended the San Francisco Spring Green Festival. Brian Weller spoke on the relationship, or link, between sustainablility and the inner consciousness. Brian studied as a monk in his early years and learned to transcend reality and the mind--the essence of Vedic Science. The following is a collection of my notes from Brian's talk as well as some of my own commentary and interjections. It may seem a bit disjointed (because the talk itself was a bit scattered) but please just take it for what it is and hopefully you receive as much wisdom from these notes as did I.

In our bipolar world, there are cycles of mania and depression due to an incredible increase in the rate of change and the complexity of information. The need of our time is to shift into sustainable consciousness. We cannot create a sustainable world from fear- and survival-based thinking. And, as you know, everything manifested in the world is originally created by thoughts. If our personal lives are overloaded and out of balance, then this state of consciousness will drive our actions and subvert our good intentions. Brian gave an example of city planning in India in which the wind patterns were known to be a certain way, so herbs were strategically planted which created an herb-scented breeze throughout the city, allowing a peaceful experience for the population. I'm not sure how well this example shows how sustainable thinking can lead to sustainable practices, but I liked the idea overall and thought it was an interesting concept. Ayurved, he said, is the science of optimal health--the biology is based on a deeper subtle level and goes to the gross level. As this science ackowledges, to make changes on the gross level you must start at the subtle.

Sat-absolute-chit-awareness-ananda-bliss. The subtlest value of thought leads to samhita, bliss, which IS a sustainable state of consciousness. The difference between the vedas, eastern science and western science lies in the knower.

Eastern science:
1. Knower (who)
2. Process of knowing (how)
3. Objects of knowledge (what)

Western science:
1. Process of knowing (how)
2. Objects of knowledge (what)

Brian then gave a few anecdotes and details from the Bhavagad Gita, Krishna's message and teachings for man on the battlefield of life. It's the story of everyone of us everyday. He then went on to detail that the vedas are a science of vibrations, sounds, and mantras. The mantras came from states of ecstacy, deep ecstatic bliss. This idea makes sense and is definitely something that stuck with me and I had never thought of before. It aligns with what Pratichi once told us at class--that she worships the mantras.

After the background details, Brian's main message is: Taking the big time out. Which means, taking one small time out at a time. Start with just 10 minutes a day. Take a break from action before you act. Before you attempt to solve a problem, go within. Dive deep within the ocean, where it's completely still. Then go out and act.

At first when you meditate, when you take the time out, the self (subject) experiences the process of seeing the object (other). The seer sees the scenery. Then, gradually, as you go within, the self becomes a thinker (state of action). The process becomes the thinker thinks the thought. As the self and other become closer...eventually a state of being is reached which is a union of self and other. Yoga=union. Satchitananda. In this state there exists a field of timelessness and there is no change. What we do we do for the pursuit of happiness.

The philosophy of bringing together green sustainability and the inner consciousness is this: The practical approaches to sustainability in the world for our environment are necessary, but these sustainable changes begin with sustainable thoughts (i.e. a sattvic mind). This link is something I had been pondering for years, but hadn't been able to identify. Thank you Brian for enlightening me!

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

I am overwhelmed with the feeling of gratitude and thankfulness to my own body and soul...its resilience...amazing power...I cannot express it in words. I am so thankful for my family and friends--I love you all dearly---also something that cannot be expressed in words. I honor the spark, the flame, the soul of universal consciousness and light in each of you. I'm overwhelmed with the beauty of each of you and your souls...and the astounding beauty of the light within each of you. I am so blessed, to have such a great family, and the best friends in the world. Thank you for all your support and supporting me through the years, I can only hope that I can offer the same support and please know that I am always here for you if you need anything at all. Isn't that what life is about--making others happy while expecting nothing in return?

A tribute to Gaia

Gaia was an incredible community website. First, it connected me with one of my most wise and sagacious friends, Kourosh Kashimi, a talented healer. The Gaia question of the day always made me reflect inward and ponder a particle of the infinite wisdom, and I enjoyed reading other community member's responses. I enjoyed browsing the top interests of the members, which were aligned with most of my own interests: animals art books cooking dancing drawing family friends gardening growing hiking laughing learning love loving meditation movies music nature painting philosophy photography poetry reading singing spirituality swimming travel traveling writing yoga. There were interesting discussions going on all the time, groups forming on various metaphysical topics, linking resources and sharing ideas. A wealth of information for the conscious and aware. The site was a great resource for books and quotes...the list of members' favorite books was a great compilation of some of the best metaphysical and self-help books. Also, there was an extensive archive of amazing quotes from these books posted by Gaia members. A truly enlightening website, which also sent weekly/monthly emails providing quotes and information on specific healers or enlightened beings, programs, offers, which I always enjoyed learning about. I only wish I had made use more of this site while it was still there. A heartfelt farewell, gaia. So it goes.

Quote on Oneness, first Ayurvedic class

The Oneness Experience is a unique and intelligent energy transfer that works by balancing the brain and awakening the energy centers in our bodies. While each person's experience is unique, many report that the experience leaves them in a peaceful state of connectedness and a newly found heightened awareness to life around them. The states of clarity and deep inner peace that many saints and sages speak about occur as a result of balance in the brain. In our modern society, the brain has become unbalanced due to the great stress that is the norm for so many of us. As we receive the Oneness Experience, the brain has a chance to heal and return to its natural way of experiencing the reality around us, allowing us to be fully with whatever is there and no longer resist who and what we are.

The goal of Oneness is to help people transform their lives in a positive way, in turn affecting the lives of others and creating a better world for us all - "to end man's suffering."

I especially like the last part of the quote. During Ayurveda class tonight, we learned that health is happiness. The search for happiness (sukha) and avoidance of unhappiness (dukkha) is natural. I believe true happiness, which you must be healthy to experience-as Ayurveda teaches, comes from making others happy. There is no other way to be happy but to make sure that others are happy, like there is no way to receive but to give.

I feel so blessed, grateful, and thankful to be able to take Ayurvedic classes. I just pray that I find a job here in SF so that I can continue to take classes with my guru dev, Shunya. My deepest desire is to be a transmitter of the divine light, to love others and help end their suffering, even if just a little bit. To be one with the Tao and the universe, life flowing through like a river.

"Get very clear about why you are here", Shunya said, "you are here to be happy. It is your birthright. This is why we are here." Your body's health is reflected in the mind so in order to be happy, she says, first start following Ayurveda, the grantha (scriptures). Happiness is the auspicious, beneficial, expansion of space. Ayurveda creates balance in the body mind and spirit, allows one to return to the natural state. Life is the unity of body, mind, and soul. We also discussed light and darkness, the meditation on light (the flame of a lamp or candle) and how this mirrors the light within you and the divine gods and goddesses. I am still sitting with this information so I will try to write more about light in the next post.

At night say: Bless my body, bless my mind. And in the morning, greet the sun, the light, the spark within you, with pure and radiant joy, blissfully.

One more thought (from a guided meditation I listened to last night) that resonated with me, when focusing on your breath, like a wave, in and out...understand that it is just one wave in a sea of waves. A sea of all of us sentient beings, breathing, in and out, like waves. I liked this especially to describe the oneness of the universe, the collective consciousness, like a sea of waves.

The Golden Present x3

The Golden Present is a collection of daily inspirational readings from Sri Swami Satchidananda's teachings. This morning I caught up on the past 3 days and these were the ideas I got from each day:
(above picture from the Cold Mountain hike)

Realize that nothing is yours. Things were given to you along the way. At a certain period things and people came to you. At a certain period they might go again. It's all just a carnival. It's always better to be humble, with our feet on the ground, so we don't fall. If you try to rise up and you slip, you will have a terrible fall. The person who is sitting on the floor need not be worried about falling down.

If you are really innocent and beautiful, you will send out a beautiful, innocent vibration.

Accept your karma with gratitude, even bad things be thankful that they are clearing your karma.

Also, from the tricycle daily email, a quote from another one of my gurus, Bhante G:

Ancient Pali texts liken meditation to the process of taming a wild elephant. The procedure in those days was to tie a newly captured animal to a post with a good strong rope. When you do this, the elephant is not happy. He screams and tramples, and pulls against the rope for days. Finally it sinks through his skull that he can’t get away, and he settles down. At this point you can begin to feed him and to handle him with some measure of safety. Eventually you can dispense with the rope and post altogether, and train your elephant for various tasks. Now you’ve got a tamed elephant that can be put to useful work. In this analogy the wild elephant is your wildly active mind, the rope is mindfulness, and the post is our object of meditation, our breathing. The tamed elephant who emerges from this process is a well-trained, concentrated mind that can then be used for the exceedingly tough job of piercing the layers of illusion that obscure reality. Meditation tames the mind.

- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, from “On Practice: Breathing,” Tricycle, Spring 1995

This quote resonated with me because I feel like my mind is at the point where it is "screaming and trampling, and pulling against the rope for days." I originally assumed my meditations would get easier and better with the more time I spent here, but the longer I stay the more I am just homesick and wanting to get back to normal life. But this quote was perfect for me to get today, it makes complete sense at the stage I am at. I feel like with more practice and training, I can get over this hurdle and re-condition my mind back to that calm, easeful and peaceful natural state to help me "pierce the layers of illusion that obscure reality." Its going to take some time though. But each day, each breath, each moment can be put to good use. "Time is limited, so choose wisely," a good friend once wrote to me.

Another concept that I have been coming across repeatedly throughout my days here is the ego, the self, the true self, the divine nature. Alan Watts says that we all need to stop lying to ourselves because there is no ego, there is only the true self, your divine nature. The whole purpose of life is to realize your divine nature. Gurudev said, "Holding onto an ordinary notion of self or ego is the source of all our pain and confusion. The irony is when we look for this self that we were cherishing and protecting we can't even find it."

Here are some ideas I found important to reflect on that were discussed during our scripture classes so far: Find your center on a daily basis, its all in you, happiness will come from inner peace while pleasure comes from worldly desires which fade. Cultivate a calm, peaceful mind, be present. With expansion of the mind, your whole being is expanded, and you have a more equanimous energy...you lose the highs and lows. Look at the mind and watch the thoughts come up. Know day by day you are becoming the master and we are all from the same source, everything comes from the same source. When thoughts come up just say, its okay because that's my mind. It's not me.

The mind will stay calm and emotions will stay calm if you accept things that happen to you as God's will, God's reason for everything. Be who you are, the source created you uniquely, and what we all need to find is that essential nature, the deep peace. Everyone has natural gifts--figure out what they are and use them, it's your natural tendency. You either use them or you don't. Use them and everything will fall into place; figure out who you are in the cosmic sense as well as the duality sense. Develop radiance and spiritually resonate through your practice.

the Yogaville experience

I arrived at Yogaville Sunday night coming straight from the Journey Inward retreat. What can I say, its a beautiful place here and I am loving it. I feel as if a month will not be enough, I can see myself returning here throughout my life. The teachings of Swami Satichandanda are so amazing, and most of his devoted students (who take the vows of a monastic life) are old hippies who met him back in the day when he first came to the US. They're really fun and I love talking to them and hearing their stories. A fun fact, Swami Satichandanda opened Woodstock, among many other amazing things he accomplished in his life. His teachings are very inspirational, I will definitely be posting more quotes and sayings from him in the days to come.

For example: "The goal of Integral Yoga, and the birthright of every individual, is to realize the spiritual unity behind all the diversities in the entire creation and to live harmoniously as members of one universal family. This goal is achieved by maintaining our natural condition of: a body of optimum health and strength, senses under total control, a mind well-disciplined, clear and calm, an intellect as sharp as a razor, a will as strong and pliable as steel, a heart full of unconditional love and compassion, an ego as pure as crystal, and a life filled with Supreme Peace and Joy."

The last part of that quote reminds me of something the one of the retreat leaders, Jonathan Evatt, said last weekend: There are 2 things encompassing the natural state: Deep stillness and Ecstatic Bliss. I thought that was such a perfect way to sum it up, I smile when I read those words. And I am learning to allow myself to feel these things, pure bliss, and deep stillness, as part of my "original mind" which all human beings have, but we have lost through conditioning and society, ect. There is a way to return to it though. Sometimes I feel guilty about feeling peaceful and blissful, that I need to be stressed or worried about something, but I am gradually allowing myself to rest in this nature. And that it doesn't mean that you are lazy or don't do anything in life, you do your work and go about your day, but just with the true realization of your divine nature.

Monday I awoke and did Hatha Yoga in the morning. I really love the style of yoga here because there is an emphasis on relaxing the muscles and the body and having no tension or strain. Asana means "comfortable position" they always say. And there is an emphasis when you relax on really being present internally and noticing the subtle flow of prana throughout your body, going to each cell. It's truly a wonderful practice, yoga is offered in the mornings and evenings, and I have gone to at least one class every day. I am going to make that my goal for the rest of the month-yoga every day.

Meditation begins at 5am, (yoga is at 6:20am), with pranayama (breath of fire, deep three part breathing, and alternate nostril breathing), as well as chanting at the beginning and end of meditation. I still don't enjoy the chanting as much as I do the silent meditation/breath awareness/present moment but maybe it will grow on me. I do feel that there is a vibrational aspect of the meditation that is achieved through the chanting, such as Om, Hare, ect. Meditation is offered three times a day, morning, noon, and 6 pm. I try to go as often as I can. At noon you can also meditate in the Lotus Shrine, a short 15 minute hike/walk away from the main campus of the Ashram. To get there the hike goes through some forested hilly land on the property. The Lotus Shrine is truly beautiful, situated in the mountains with a pond surrounding one side of it. The energy there is incredible because Guru Dev (Swami Satichananda) had crystals from all over the world, blessed by many different sages and religious leaders, added to the foundation as well as water from rivers all over the world. Its really an amazing place, I had one very deep samadhi meditation there during my welcome weekend.

Working ("karma yoga") is supposed to be "selfless service" which I'm getting used to. I'm not to thrilled about working in the kitchen or housekeeping but I'm trying my best to not think its too awful....I don't know though! It's kind of cool to cut up lots of vegetables though, I'm sure it will get old after a few days. We are usually preparing meals for 100-150 people so there's a lot to be done. The meals are great, healthy, and vegetarian and whenever possible we use food grown on the Ashram farm.

There are scripture classes at night, so far I've been to two: one on the Bhavagad Gita and another on Thirukkural by Thiruvalluvar. Last night's class was very enlightening, seriously one of the best classes I've ever been a part of. Everyone here is just on another plane of consciousness it seems, or they have studied a lot of the metaphysical and spiritual world, that we can have great debates and discussions.

On Wednesday I went hiking to Cold Mountain in the George Washington National Forest (I believe) with a group of 7 other Ashramites :) It was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever been on...pictures to come...and it was just so interesting being with an eclectic group of people. Getting out of my usual comfort zone, its great to stretch your mind with new ideas and thoughts. The leaves were so beautiful, with the sunshine, I felt like I was walking in a sea of yellow half the time. And there was a beautiful meadow at the top of the mountain where you could see in all directions--stunning. The sky and clouds were magical :) Before the hike we ate at a local side of the road Thai restaurant, which was yummy to have non-ashram food!, but it was cool. It was totally unexpected. And on the way back we stopped for hot chocolate at a quaint little coffee shop, Rapunzel's, where the walls were lined with used books and some locals were sitting around in a circle playing amazing bluegrass. It was quite a day.

Will write lots and lots more later! xoKatie

Blissful

I spent the past weekend at SevenOaks, a beautiful retreat center, in Madison, VA. The energy of the Journey Inward retreat was indescribable and many thanks to Ashley of Deep Green Wellness for organizing the event and bringing us all together. It was great to be at this very sacred place for spiritual growth surrounded by nature, with the cool crisp air, the mountains, walking trails, and the river all so close to us. At the retreat we did yoga, ate healthy vegetarian meals, listened to a very enlightening speaker, Jonathan Evatt. I also received a chakra cleansing (my first) from Sanjivani, which I am very grateful for. Ashely led the yoga classes and also an herb walk around SevenOaks. I have much more to write (and pictures too) but I just wanted to post a brief note here while I am still beaming with the pure bliss I felt at the retreat :) Now, onto hatha yoga here at yogaville, and a guest speaker, Dr. Sullivan, tomorrow morning who will be speaking about Ayurveda (he owns an Ayurvedic spa) which I am so looking forward to!! It just feels as if everything is starting to fall into place.
xoKatie