ONE MAN'S SERVICEI recently met an inspiring man. Entrepreneur Richard Swannell of Perth, Australia created a software program that analyzes financial markets. (see www.Elliotician.com) However, making money was not enough to give his life meaning. He traveled the world, looking for a philanthropic project. He found it in Hebron, an orphanage in Southeast India. As soon as he committed to supporting the orphanage, his business went bankrupt. Somehow, he persevered. Five years later, his software business is doing well. The orphanage has grown. After the tsunami, he personally rescued 100 children from the beaches. He now supports 350 orphans. He has created a program to teach the children how to use the software to make money on Wall Street. His goal is to train other traders to duplicate this program to help others throughout the world. If you know of any other individuals or foundations doing good work in the world, please share your stories with us. We will post them here for us all to enjoy. Namaste, Bruce Bell "We are all visitors on this planet. We are here for 90 or 100 years, at the very most. During that period, we must try to do something good, something useful with our lives. If you contribute to other people’s happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life." His Holiness, the Dalai Lama |
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What Goes Up... As an individual and as a race, our ascent into spirit must be accompanied by an equal descent of spirit into matter. "One ascends via Eros (to a higher and wider identity), and then integrates via Agape (reaches out with compassion). As we ascend into higher states of wisdom, we expand the circle of our own compassion for more and more beings." The Way Up is the Way Down, by Ken Wilbur, Parabola Magazine Hindu tradition for Mothers: Beginning on the fifth birthday of her child, and for every birthday afterwards, she gives something precious away, to prepare her to let go of her child. May is named for the Roman goddess Maia, goddess of dynamic energy. When Maha Devi unites with Vishnu, she is known as Maya. 
The Shri Yantra, symbol of Maha Devi
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Watching the Flowers Bloom, Using Nature as a Transformative Path
May marks the midpoint of spring with various festivals celebrating erotic unions such as the Celtic Beltane (May 1st-6th) and the Indian festivals honoring Maha Devi (May 16th) and her lover, Vishnu (May 19th). Maha Devi is the Great Mother, the Red Goddess whose divine play is to birth and death all creation.. She is also celebrated as the Triple Goddess (Virgin, Mother and Crone) and Lady of the Three Gunas. Gunas are qualities of energy interwoven into all forms of life; they are principles of Nature (prakriti). The gunas are saatva (centered), rajas(dynamic) and tamas (inertia). In springtime, rajastic energies run high. By midspring, however, the balance of gunas shifts once again. When Maha Devi takes the form of the new moon (this year on May 8th, Mother’s Day), there is a taste of tamas. At the new moon, the Red Goddess is formless. This heralds the opportunity to step back and enjoy the show. As the moon waxes, so does rajas and the divine play resumes, with an audience, known as the Witness.
Yoga enables us to sharpen and purify our perceptions. It trains us to experience and discriminate between subtle states of consciousness in service of manifesting spirit. The one who watches these experiences is known as the Witness, the authentic self or the soul. The Witness is the midway point between ego and spirit. It is the ultimate voyeur, watching the play and not identifying with any of it. Do not think that you have to get rid of the ego to advance to the stage of the Witness. The Witness loves it all. The Witness sees the light of spirit shining through all forms. Enjoy the season. Have fun playing with all creation. With palms together, Elizabeth Andes-Bell NETI, NETI (Exercise to find the Witness) Next time you are in Savasana or meditating, add this to your practice. 1. Relax the body in stages, first the muscles, then the organs, then the bones. With each stage of relaxation, feel the floor rise up and support you. 2. Relax the breath. Feel it as effortless. Feel as though you are being breathed and there is nothing you need to do. Feel as though you are breath itself. 3. Relax the mind. See your skull as the vast blue sky. Whatever thoughts arise, watch them float by as clouds. 4. Whatever arises, say to yourself "Neti, neti." I am not this, not that. 5. Do not miss the subtle feeling of openness and freedom. It is so transparent. You may just feel it as expansiveness, but we need to name it. This presence is the witness. Just rest in grace and watch the show go by. It is all neti, neti. After a while, you will become vast and radiantly empty. Purusha and Prakriti: In the yogic tradition, Purusha means pure awareness or spirit. It is unborn, uncreated consciousness of the One. Prakriti means the many. It is the manifest world of Nature. Prakriti’s forms are constantly birthing and dying. One warm spring day, Purusha sat by the banks of the Narmada River, dozing in the sunshine. He awoke to see a beautiful young woman, Prakriti, washing herself in the river. The air was thick and sweet. Her naked body was framed by brilliantly flickering waves. As he watched her, his heart swelled. Sensing his presence, she turned and saw him watching her. Her eyes were soft and deep, like a doe’s. For a moment or an eternity, their eyes met. Then, she simply vanished into thin air. |
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Asana of the Month – Parvritaparsvakonasana (Revolved Lunge) 
This standing twist asks you to maintain your center and stability in the legs and pelvis while challenging you to up the ante by spinning the legs and feet in to accelerate the flow.* When you spin in, your center has more gravitational pull. Your energy will move in as well as up and down the sushumna’s axis. This sets you up for the twist, which is a symmetrical rotation along the vertical axis. You play the streams of rajas , tamas and saatva. It also is an excellent counterpose to the backbends of spring. Be careful not to go beyond the laws of proportion, even if you have the range. Think of the pelvis, the heart and the head as pearls on a string. Map out each pearl in 8 directions ( front, back, side to side and 4 corners), with front being the pubic bone, the sternum and the third eye. Connect these body points to the same directions in the room. First elongate the vertical axis, then align each body part. The pubis remains facing front. If your thoracic range only allows the sternum to rotate 45 degrees, then every part of the thorax must stay in symmetrical relationship. This lets the organs unwind into right relationship and undulate in the pranic pulse. It is easy to compensate for rigid lungs by over twisting the shoulder girdle in an attempt to get more rotation but this is how we damage ourselves. If the head cannot rotate 45 degrees from the sternum, then try just 90 degrees from the pubis. It is more important not to torque and cut off the energetic flow. Think of it like a kink in a hose. When you are rooted and aligned the kundalini energy spirals up the vertical axis of the sushumna. This is the ever-widening evolutionary spiral. It is Eros yearning to merge blissfully with the One. If you follow it to the end of the wave, you will bask in the descent of the sweet gift waves of grace known as Agape. The Many become the One. The One becomes the Many. Your personal energy, mind and body transform into transpersonal ‘sat’ (power), ‘chit’ (knowledge) and ‘anand’ (bliss). • For those of you who do not study with me, you should know that mere spinning is not enough to assure a balanced flow. You must balance what you spin, in other words, equal weight distribution on either side of the vertical axis. The goal is ‘samastiti’ (equal standing) in all poses. This leads to ‘samatva’ (inner balance) and eventually to ‘samadhi’ (ecstasy). To enter this territory, you need to develop your witness to map from any center in the body and, because the map is not the territory, do not abandon the territory for the lovely concept of a map. Stay present to your experience. |
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