C'est tout...

...ce que je voulais dire.
C'est que...
j'adore écrire...
j'aime traduire,
et peut-être qu'il faut que le fasse un peu plus,
et pour quelque chose de vrai.

Where did all the good hippies go? Raising consciousness.

"I want more. 

This isn't it. 

This isn't it.

Fame is not the goal. 

Money [is not the goal.] 

It's not the answer." 

Where did all the really good hippies go when they all dropped out?

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about stilling the mind and how to do that. Who doesn't want to stop the wheels from going round and round from time to time? This concept is the first of the sutras that Pantanjali writes:

The answer is tried and true, especially when you hear an authority on this type of thing: Stilling the mind can happen thanks to mantra. The notion of mantra that I have, from various simple sources, is this: it gives the mind words to resonate in the mouth... ear.... heart.... and mind. And though it can feel like one is doing nothing at times... that is kind of the point too. There is silence and sound in the mantra.

"Transcendental is beyond the senses, beyond the intellect," as George Harrison says. "Everybody is so limited and so really useless when you think of it about the limitations on yourself and the whole thing is to change, try to make everything better and better;  that's what the physical world is about is change, but the change that happens through meditation is a gradual sort of thing but the more you realize with anything, with just growing old, the more you realize: it helps you in some way. With meditation you are able to understand that there is this unity lying beneath everything; there's something there within every atom that holds it all together and the actual fact that it really is one, but on the intellectual level to say, "We are one," then I mean, again, you missed the point. It's an experience. You have to really have that perception that it is one."

If one adds a devotional aspect to one's mantra, for example with the maha mantra, then the heart can be more engaged in the practice of japa.

And, following Rumi, if one thinks of the moment 

as the now, or consciousness, 

or the awareness of reality that the seer within sees and hears... 

and goodness, kindness, creation, love, and greater wisdom to its source,

then there can be sweet nectar.

I like what George Harrison says:

"How to get peace of mind and how to be happy? That's really what we are supposed to be here and the difficult thing is we all go through our lives and our days and we don't experience bliss. It's a very subtle thing to experience that, to be able to know how to do that is something you don't just stumble across. You gotta search for it."

VHI interviewer: "Did you experience bliss on stage or in the studio? In a way did performing put you in touch with that bliss?"

"We had happiness at times but not the kind of bliss that I mean where, like, every atom of your body is just buzzing, you know, because again, it's beyond the mind. It's when there's no thought involved. It's a pretty tricky thing to try to get to that stage because it means controlling the mind and being able to transcend the relative states of consciousness: waking, sleeping, dreaming, which is all we really know. But there is another state that goes beyond all that and that state is where the bliss and the knowledge are available."

Also teaching people to be healthy, rather than focusing on disease. Teaching consciousness.

There is a generation of kids now open to consciousness and vegetarianism. So, can we be positive about today's society? "It is getting better *and* worse because that's the nature of relativity: good and bad, good and bad, but if the individual gets on that consciousness, you can retain the balance between the good and the bad. Because really, good and bad are the same thing."

Personally speaking, I don't get how good and bad are part of the same thing; how can they be the sap from the same tree? [Especially] when one is acknowledging real evil in the world--Lord, protect the innocence of children--how can awful cruelty and selfishness be any bit related to the good we have in mind through devotional practice--how is such darkness the same as the goodness we have seen in the world?

***

Harrison: "Put your own house in order. Until I'm straight, then I'm in no position to criticize others."

Like Harrison's teacher said: For a forest to be green, every tree has to be green.

Let us be green, then, and silent.

Antarctic Beech, Northwestern US 

Reading Geeta Iyengar

Aimer savoir est humain. 

Savoir aimer est divin. 

~Joseph Roux

To love to know is human. 

To know how to love is divine.

"To be on the proper disciplined path is important 

because it is through that process that compassion can bring softness.” 

~Geeta Iyengar, in an interview with Los Angeles times

Patanjali, modern art rendering in Patanjali Yogpeeth

I am delighted to read Yoga: A Gem for Woman, by Geeta S. Iyengar. Amongst several passages I would like to keep in mind, I was very grateful for this section of the following book, which is quite clear about a key concept of devoting oneself to one's bhakti yoga practice.

Yoga: A Gem for Woman, 

by Geeta S. Iyengar

"Sadhana has three stages, namely Sravana (listening), Manana (thinking), and Nididhyasana (putting into practice and experiencing). Patanjali explains these three aspects using a different terminology, namely Japa (repetition), Artha (understanding), and Bhavana (realisation).

In Yoga-sadhana all the three processes have to be followed for one's practice to bear fruit. For example, asana has to be repeated again and again, day after day, year after year; this is Sravana or Japa. It is Karma Marga.

This repetition leads one to the mental process of thinking, where one penetrates deeper and deeper from Annamaya Kosa to Anandamaya Kosa. This is called Manana, which gives meaning and understanding of the action which is being performed by the sadhaka. This is Jnana Marga in sadhana.

This repeated (Japa) and well-thought-over (artha) action gives a new experience to the sadhaka. It is a form of worship in which one offers every asana as a flower to God. The sadhaka becomes one with the action and remains absorbed in it (Bhavana). This enlightened state of Self-realisation is Bhakti Marga. Then Karma, Jnana, and Bhakti all merge into One. This is Nididhyasana.

This type of sadhana alone brings completion to the practice."

Thank you, Geeta Iyengar, for living as a wonderful yogi, writer, and teacher!

And though I may be "young" to some, I can really appreciate and relate to what Iyengar is saying when she says the following (in the same interview with LA Times as linked above):

[She] finds that her daily yoga practice has become a gift for old age. “Yoga is an inner journey that helps to keep oneself healthy, not just on a physical level, but it gives inner mental peace and maturity.” While she sees yoga as a valuable tool to for coping with daily living, she rejects popular trends to use it as a quick fix-solution for various ailments and aches. Instead, she says, “I feel there are so many things to learn from yoga that can help old age become pleasant.” She’s quick to add that she is “not talking in terms of Western ideas about beauty that demands one to remain and look young, even in old age.” Rather, she is prepared “to accept a mature mind that has experienced many things, and from that yogic experience I can find a better way.”

And so, wishing the world peace as we all age here together, frightened by silly world politics and policies and senseless shootings. Here's to getting old! Some people don't get that chance. Let us embrace all the time we have to inch our way towards Krishna consciousness, Krishna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita, or whatever guiding light and truth we may have discovered.

Om shanti Om

A Beatle and his song, "Here Comes the Sun"

I recently learned something really quite lovely about a popular Beatles song, thanks to Vrindavan Diaries, a beautiful entity to follow on instagram as they post nuggets of wisdom regarding Krishna consciousness, mostly stemming from the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. Many of us have heard the Beatles' song, "Here Comes the Sun" (from the Abbey Road album, 1969), but I was literally - well, quite almost - electrified in learning that George Harrison wrote it about Krishna coming into his life - but, as he wrote to Srila Prabhupada, he felt the need to disguise the inspiration of his Isvara somewhat. One might ask: Disguise or universalize? At any rate, he sent it to Prabhupada, asking the spiritual master and saint from whom he had learned so much about humility and wisdom, his thoughts. Prabhupada was delighted. I myself feel delighted to have a new song to think about God in such a global and fitting way. And what a fitting time of year.

Speaking on Prabhupada, George Harrison said: "Even though he was at the time seventy-nine years old, working practically all through the night, day after day, with very little sleep, he still didn't come through to me as though he was a very highly educated intellectual being, because he had a sort of childlike simplicity. Which is great, fantastic. Even though he was the greatest Sanskrit scholar and a saint, I appreciated the fact that he never made me feel uncomfortable. In fact, he always went out of his way to make me feel comfortable. I always thought of him as sort of a lovely friend, really, and now he's still a lovely friend."

"That was the thing about Prabhupada, you see. He didn't just talk about loving Krishna and getting out of this place, but he was the perfect example. He talked about always chanting, and he was always chanting. I think that in itself was perhaps the most encouraging thing for me. It was enough to make me try harder, to be just a little bit better."

Srila Prabhupada to George Harrison: "You are George Harrison, in a famous band, you are famous throughout all the world, but how long will you be George Harrison? So, as long as you are George Harrison, you should talk about Krishna consciousness."

I also love the story of the lila -- the big bright-eyed kiss on the cheek -- unfolding before all the serious sannyasis' eyes as George Harrison greeted Yamuna Devi.

And last, but certainly not least, here is a supremely lovely, less disguised song of George Harrison, chanting the names of God. What a beautiful voice for the topic.

Wishing you cuteness

The simplicity of cuteness

Reincarnation

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Another Story

When people in the East hear young children speaking of past lives, this is not usual. In other societies where reincarnation is an expectation, it is quite different--and this certainly changes the case. The story at the end of Mary is particularly touching.

The story of the Dalai Lama and Elijah/Tenzin is interesting. Again, the story of Mary/Jenny is terrifying/touching:

Feelin' Foxy

How beautiful are foxes!

I wonder if THIS is my spirit animal?!

The fox is a lovely animal to hold in one's mind, due to its fascinating qualities.

The Fennec Fox is tiny and lives in the Sahara desert