Memorable Quotes

Memorable quotes from The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho. Who is no longer my favorite author after this book! I picked it up at the bookstore after a quick glance at the back cover, not realizing it is an awful thriller about a serial killer and I cannot stand any horror movies or reading about anything of the sort. I just don't fill my consciousness which such thoughts. Anyway, there were a few memorable quotes:

"Jasmine is sitting staring out at the sea while she thinks of nothing. At such moments, she feels a deep connection with the infinite, as if it were not she who was there, but something more powerful, something capable of extraordinary things."
I often feel this way at the beach. This quote further strengthens my resolve that the next place I move to call home, I will have to live on the beach.

"At the first sign of indifference or lack of enthusiasm, take note! The only preventive against this disease is the realization that the soul suffers, suffers greatly, when we force it to live superficially. The soul loves all things beautiful and deep."

State of coherence

Quotes from The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, a book I just finished on the plane back to SF, highly recommended humorous and captivating novel about the current state in India.

"May I just say that an hour of deep breathing, yoga, and meditation in the morning constitutes the perfect start to the entrepreneur's day. How I would handle the stresses of this fucking business without yoga, I have no idea."

"Actually my background as a business journalist made me realize that most of what's written about in business magazines is bullshit--and I don't take business or corporate literature seriously at all."

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!

The Truth of Non-Duality

Money coming or going, harmony, wisdom, and health can all turn upon a single thought. With a single thought, poverty can be overcome; with a single thought, disease can be cured; with a single thought, you can embrace and help others. Because mind is infinite, it can embrace the universe and still have room left over. Thus, if you understand the truth of nonduality, you can completely embrace everything. If you raise one thought that is calm, noble, and humble, and do so without any trace of like or dislike, or of “I,” then that thought begins to manifest in the world and becomes medicine for all suffering. All energy will follow and work together with this kind of thought.

Daehaeng Kun Sunim, "Thinking Big" (Winter 2008)

download electro future glitch hip hop

Wikipedia of the Day: Consonance and dissonance

In Tantric Buddhism, deity meditation is a method that allows the mind’s
inherent goodness to manifest, to increase constantly, and to never
decline.

Cosmic vibrations in each cell of your body

OM is the sound of the Cosmic Vibration. The entire cosmos vibrates. Every cell vibrates. In fact, the whole universe is nothing but sound vibrations. The basic vibration is a hum, and the sum total of the universal vibration is also a hum. In between, there are fragments. All the words, all the languages, all the various sounds that are created by the human beings or animals or even machines are smaller parts of this cosmic hum. Without that hum, there is nothing. To denote that cosmic hum, there should be a word. OM is the word that comes closest to representing that cosmic hum. The word OM itself is not the hum. It's the name of the hum.

Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi

-Swami Satchidananda

RIP Michael Jackson...still so amazing, a $200 million deal with Sony

Quote of the day: "Always keep a book with you." -Dave Bloom

Discipline...Rest at the Top

From the Golden Present, love Guru Dev:

14 January
Rest At The Top

Wherever you are, whatever you do, have discipline in your life. Discipline your mind, discipline your senses, discipline your body. When we want a big reward, we have to pay a big price. Nothing comes easily. Even for a few minutes of ego gratification for climbing to the top of a mountain, so much effort is needed. How many months of great difficulties will you have to undergo to attain such a goal? How many times will you slip, get up, start, slip, get up, start again? At last you stand there at the top, plant your flag, and say, "I conquered Everest." You may have conquered Everest, but you can never rest there. In ten minutes you even have to come down. For that ten minutes' joy you worked so hard, you followed so many disciplines. Then it's over.

In the spiritual life, however, once you get to the top, you have reached Ever-rest. You do rest there, and you won't have to come down. You can even pull others up as well. But there are no shortcuts. A great price must be laid to reach that great goal. What is that price? Leading a selfless life.

Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi

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.

Cosmic Consciousness

Click here to subscribe to the Daily Golden Present reading email list. Highly recommended.

From today's reading:

Just treat everything as play. All this coming and going, meeting, eating, welcoming, sending off, taking birth, saying goodnight and goodbye. It's all fun. We should see it in this light and take things easy. It's all a great, divine play and we all have our roles. Don't even say that we are playing our roles. We are all puppets; there is a wire tied to us. That wire is Cosmic Consciousness. We all have that Consciousness. Whatever that Consciousness thinks, we think. But when we fail to understand that, and allow our individual egos to come to the surface, we think that we are doing something. That is what you call basic ignorance. Actually we have no business of our own here at all. Nothing belongs to us. Not even these bodies, not even these minds.

Vedanta

Vedanta (Devanagari: वेदान्त, Vedānta) was originally a word used as a synonym for that part of the Veda known also as the Upanishads. The name is a sandhied form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedas". Vedanta is considered to be source of all vedic literature. Original Vedanta contained four verses, later expanded to thousands. By the 8th century CE, the word also came to be used to describe a group of philosophical traditions concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality (Brahman). The word Vedanta teaches that the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity. Vedanta is not restricted or confined to one book and there is no sole source for Vedantic philosophy.^[1] Vedanta is based on two simple propositions:

1. Human nature is divine.
2. The aim of human life is to realize that human nature is divine.

The goal of Vedanta is a state of self-realization or cosmic consciousness. Historically and currently, it is assumed that this state can be experienced by anyone, but it cannot be adequately conveyed in language.

via wikipedia: Vedanta

Quote of the day: Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious. -Brendan Gill

anahata

"Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have heart?"

Carlos Castaneda

Meditation is the medicine of the mind

A few touristy pictures from SF so far. I am here looking at apartments to sublease for January and also looking for a job :) I met with my Ayurvedic teacher, Pratichi Mathur, whom I will start school with in January. It was an incredible meeting and I feel truly grateful and blessed to embark on my Ayurvedic journey and studies with her, and become part of an Ayurvedic lineage. Much of what she said was very synchronistic with what I have been feeling, and with what I learned at the ashram. I got the chance to visit her home and it was just so wonderful; she truly lives for others, selflessly.

The other pictures are from my walk down Market street. I walked through Union Square and the Financial District to the bay, it was beautiful. I like a city with tall buildings :) I love you DC but I love a cityscape too. The first picture was taken in my hotel room, the saying "be good" is painted on the wall. It reminds me of the sign in Sivananda Hall at the ashram, "Be good, do good." I love Guru Dev and all of his sayings. I'm looking forward to maybe returning to the ashram for a day or two in December. Seeing the "be good" reminder every day makes me happy, and also my hotel, even though in a sketchy part of town, is still pretty awesome. There's an alarm clock with an ipod doc, reclaimed wood used for the beds designed by a local designer, light fixtures constructed with reused glass bottles, and soaps in wall-mounted dispensers (no packaging waste).

I checked out a place in the Mission district yesterday afternoon as a potential room to rent, what a colorful eclectic neighborhood. Its similar in some ways to Columbia Heights. I enjoyed seeing all of the mosaics and murals on Valencia St., herbal apothecaries and healing centers. I wish I had taken more pictures but I wasn't in a "touristy" mood at the time. Although I enjoyed the neighborhood I don't think I'd want to live there, I will try to live closer to downtown...

I've also been reading the Celestine Prophecy. I'm so glad to be reading this book on this trip, I feel as if its very synchronistic. (I've been noticing a lot of these things lately!) Usually when I fly somewhere I always remember a book being associated with the trip that I read on the plane/in the hotel. This paring is an auspicious one. Some of my favorite quotes so far from the book:

"Years ago, when we had both lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, we had spent regular evenings together, talking. Most of our discussions were about academic theories and psychological growth. We had both been fascinated by the conversations and by each other."

"Working to establish a more comfortable style of survival has grown to feel completely in and of itself as a reason to live, and we've gradually forgotten our original question...We've forgotten that we still don't know what we're surviving for."

"Much has been written over the past several decades about the revolution in physics, but the changes really stem from two major findings, those of quantum mechanics and those of Albert Einstein.
The whole of Einstein's life's work was to show that what we perceive as hard matter is mostly empty space with a pattern of energy running through it. This includes ourselves. And what quantum physics has shown is that when we look at these patterns of energy at smaller and smaller levels, startling results can be seen. Experiments have revealed that when you break apart small aspects of this energy, and try to observe how they operate, the act of observation itself alters the results. This is true even if the particles must appear in places they couldn't possibly go, given the laws of the universe as we know them: two places at the same moment, forward or backward in time. The basic stuff of the universe, at its core, is looking like a kind of pure energy that is malleable to human intention."

Quote of the day:
Smile
Feel love
Consider the environment
Always do your best
Speak impeccably
Don't take things personally

Be yourself...

There is no better gift you can give the world then to be the person you dream you can be. Begin with yourself and watch the magic begin.

Image: Another taken on the recent hike I went on in the Blue Ridge Mountains <3

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.

Yoga

Instead of talking about peace and joy, about God, we should do something to realize God. Keep the mind clean, the body clean, the life well-disciplined, the heart dedicated. This is Yoga. Stay away from anything that disturbs your peace, from anything that will bring disappointments, anxieties and worries.

Put others first. Only then will you really find peace and joy. If you want to live happily, if you want to be immortal, let every minute of your life be useful to the world. See that you bring peace and joy to everybody and no harm to anybody.

With that outlook on life, the whole world becomes a beautiful Yoga ashram. We don't need to "retreat" from the world because the world will "treat" us well. Don't worry about theology. Is there a god here or there? Did I live before? Am I going to live again? Think of the golden present.

Let the whole world know by your example that you are something beautiful and divine. Let your actions bring out that cosmic beauty. Lead a simple life, as natural as possible. Be like a child. This will not only take care of you, but your surroundings, your country, and ultimately the whole world. Go happily, joyfully, peacefully, and share this knowledge, this spirit, with the entire world. Share it with all who come close to you. -Sri Swami Satchidananda

our basic heart nature yearns to relax into love

Will's awesome chairs made from unexpected objects! So cool :) What a genius!

Google earth launches climate layer

2009 Solar Decathlon on the National Mall! The model homes will be assembled right on the Mall and will be open to the public on Oct. 9-13 and Oct. 15-18.

A fun site :)

The practice of seeing clearly is what finally moves us toward kindness. Seeing, again and again, the infinite variety of traps we create for seducing the mind into struggle, seeing the endless rounds of meaningless suffering over lusts and aversions (which, although seemingly urgent, are essentially empty), we feel compassion for ourselves. And then, quite naturally, we feel compassion for everyone else. We know as we have never known before that we are stuck, all of us, with bodies and minds and instincts and impulses, all in a tug-of-war with our basic heart nature that yearns to relax into love. Then we surrender. We love. We laugh. We appreciate.

– Sylvia Boorstein, from “On the Cushion,” Tricycle, Summer 2002

...

Remember, all the answers you need are inside of you; you only have to become quiet enough to hear them.

Don't worry

I hope this blog post gives you a moment of clarity and peace, along with some insightful knowledge. Breathe easy!

http://www.350.org/ : An international day of climate action, a global movement to solve the climate crisis, on my birthday this year! :)

CarbonFreeDC Extreme Green Neighborhood Makeover: Home Improvement Volunteer Form Click the link if you're interested in helping volunteer in either Shaw or Deanwood for a weekend in September working with deserving families by installing energy efficient and planet-friendly products! You can indicate your availability to volunteer to install equipment at the homes.

Deep Green Autunm Retreat: The Journey Inward: Accessing Inner Wisdom through Yoga and Plant Medicines. I am planning to attend this retreat October 16-18, which looks to be in an absolutely lovely setting and promises to be transformative. Click on the link to visit the Deep Green Wellness page for a link to their retreats.

Idealist.org grad fair in DC, September 21st, at the Washington Convention Center 801 Mount Vernon Place NW DC

Currently listening to: Issamu's new mix. Legit. Also check out the link to his blog on my favorite links, Third Eye Buisness.

The summer night sky is filled with a multitude of the Milky Way's stars, hundreds of billions of stars making up its flowing river of soft light.

Seasonal recipe: Garden fresh pasta salad, I'd probably add some summer squash too, or maybe tofu.

Listen with your heart. Heart-centered listening, including how the heart communicates with the body and brain, can be used to create greater peace and love not just in your life, but in the world. You can help to gather the information to listen to in your heart by doing an anahata (heart chakra) kundalini meditation. Sitting comfortably on the floor in your meditation posture, place your left hand in front of your heart chakra face down and hold your right arm up, extended in the air at a 60 degree angle from the floor. The right had is collecting the information from the universe, while the left collects information from you lower chakras, and brings it all to the heart.

Thoughts on meditation via the Tricycle weekly newsletter:

Everything changes and all will wither away. There is no permanent and abiding "self." And to top it all off, life is suffering.

Wow, Buddhism can be a real buzz-kill. Sometimes, anyway. But there are many doors to joy. According to Vipassana teacher James Baraz, it's just a question of opening them:

Methods for opening the mind to joy and happiness are found throughout the Buddha’s teachings. One sure way is through skillful practice of meditation. Through seeing clearly, we can free the mind of grasping, aversion, and ignorance, allowing our natural joy to manifest. In fact, research has amply demonstrated that meditation increases activity in areas of the brain associated with positive emotions.

Quotes of the day: "There is great power in patience because it cuts through arrogance and ingratitude. It is the path that lets us move from resistance to acceptance and spontaneous presence. Holding on to our judgments about others and ourselves is a major cause of impatience. Repeating softly to ourselves, “May I be happy just as I am” and “May I be peaceful with whatever is happening” helps us accept our vulnerabilities, imperfections, and losses: everything from chronic physical and emotional pain, to the death of loved ones, the end of a job or relationship—even nightmare traffic jams."

"Life is really generous to those who pursue their destiny." Paulo Coelho
my thoughts: I believe this is true, as long as you have realized your destiny through divine listening.

Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. Once you have determined the spiritual principles you wish to exemplify, abide by these rules as if they were laws, as if it were indeed sinful to compromise them. Don't mind if others don't share your convictions. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer.

Epictetus (c. 50-120)


We don’t open our heart and mind because we haven’t experienced the benefit of doing that. Once we have experienced the truth, there isn’t even an issue. There is no worry. The whole question of whether we are ready to open our heart and mind to the truth isn’t even a concern.

Hypnagogia + Fire the Grid : : Be Present

Image via Astronomy pic of the day: Few auroras show this level of detail. Above, a standard digital camera captured a particularly active and colorful auroral corona that occurred last week above Alberta, Canada. With a shape reminiscent of a flower, the spectacular aurora had an unusually high degree of detail. The vivid green and purple auroral colors are caused by high atmospheric oxygen and hydrogen reacting to a burst of incoming electrons. Many photogenic auroras have been triggered from a solar wind stream that recently passed the Earth. The auroras were unexpected because the initiating Sun has been unusually quiet of late.

Aquarids: The Aquarid meteor shower is expected to peak tonight, the Moon's brightness may interfere with observation.

via wikipedia:
Hypnagogia (Greek ὕπνος, húpnos "sleep" + the root found in ἄγω, ágō "to lead away, conduct, convey", ἀγωγεύς, agōgeús "conveyor", ἀγωγή, agōgḗ "abduction, transport, leading away" etc.), often misspelled hypnogaia or hypnogogia, is a term coined by Alfred Maury for the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep.

Seasonal Eating: Organic Blackberries
This week is the peak of blackberry season in our region. Don't miss out on sweet, juicy, luscious organic black berries bursting with ripeness!

"Let the beauty you seek be what you do." -Rumi

Fire the Grid: Tonight at 6:19 pm EST. I've posted a short summary paragraph from the website below, but for more detailed information just click on the "Fire the Grid" link.

To summarize, what we will do on July 28, 2009 at 19:19 Rio di Janeiro time — 18:19 (6:19 PM) in your time zone — is unite as one, sharing our purest intention to create a new world. As each of us as individuals see the earth in its true potential, collectively we will begin to create a world with untold possibilities. Hold that intention for an hour. During that time, the energy stored in the crystal beds under Brazil will be released and we will allow that energy to pass through us on its way back to Source.

The energy of Fire the Grid is ready to go back home. Please join us on July 28, 2009 at 19:19 Rio di Janeiro time — 18:19 (6:19 PM) in your time zone — for Fire the Grid II as we choose consciously to be present and accountable in the energetic creation of a new world.

Go Slow. Life in Progress.

via Gaia's weekly email:

Most people believe only in degrees of jeopardy and live in degrees of greater and lesser anxiety, but never in true relaxation. The assurance of safety is a vital and wonderful resource that we need to share with one another.
- Paul Richards -

The ability to relax is one of the most important capacities any of us of can develop. It's impossible to really connect with anyone when you're in a state of stress; indeed, when you're stressed, it's impossible to be truly tuned into the deeper messages of your own heart and spirit and soul. Relaxation—true relaxation—is absolutely essential to authenticity, and to really being yourself.

Sometimes I get a little sorrowful thinking about this, because these days it seems there are fewer and fewer people who are capable of really relaxing. And sometimes it feels like the world we live in is dead-set on training us to do anything but relax—just look at the news, and at the values pushed in schools and universities and work environments. Relaxation is not something we speak much about, either—we talk about how stressed we are, and how busy, but rarely about what we're doing to relax. And so we contribute neither to relaxation in our own lives, nor in the lives of those around us.

things on my mind after working at pure prana tonight... natural medicines...being a locovore...the power of positive thinking...
"Theres something slippery about summer, and that's the beauty of it, a season so brilliant, sensual and bold, that it eludes your efforts to contain it and instead it wraps you in abundances, swaths of sunlight, and long lazy hours...none of which is really even yours to keep. Therein lies the lesson."
May all beings everywhere attain happiness and freedom.


Practice letting life spin around you in bright concentric circles, filling you with light.