The external beauties and (as often as not) challenges are easy to write about, but the inner work is not. Still, I am rising at 5:30 for yoga, each day feeling stronger, more limber, and somehow "cleaner"; I am sitting when I can in meditation — really delighting in being close to the ground, and …
Dressed in her hospital uniform, Sonam insisted on calling in an autorickshaw for us, arguing with the driver (who wanted to keep his price open — to anything, apparently), riding us all the way to the bus station, and seeing us safely onto the Mangalore bus before bidding us farewell… we were not outside of …
Now I know how ginger grows. When we lived on our little farm in Brazil, we had something called gangibre falsa, "false ginger", which was apparently a relative of the real thing. The root, when I dug it up, had neither the appearance or the smell I was looking for, and somehow during our seven-plus years …
Yesterday we began our ride from Mysore with a driver who spoke good English, but he traded out with another (who spoke no English whatsoever) when it became clear that we would be driving through the other's home town of Honsur. Manny and I entertained ourselves during the three hour trip, over very rough roads …
Manny and I left Auroville yesterday with great good-byes, good feelings, and with an amazingly full experience drawn inside of us — only seven days in the place, but in terms of new thoughts, faces and experience…. timeless. I rose every morning at 5:30 for yoga, 6:00 for meditation, 7:00 for an hour reading Savitri,Sri Aurobindo's …
Arrival follows departure and, unless you work tirelessly to avoid them, solitary travel invariably collects companions.
I can't leave Auroville without making mention of its spiritual and physical heart, the Matrimandir… though at the same time I feel there is almost nothing I can say that does any justice to the vision behind it, the experience of the area around it, or the power of insight and meditation it brings one. …
To feed a local population, the highest use for a parcel land is when the most life has been generated.
Most of the communities that exist in Auroville — as semi-autonomous communities, that is, with their own social structure and goals, texture and color — were founded by a few energetic people who wished to manifest the vision of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in a particular and personal way. Some are recent, some have …
I have hesitated to begin this post. The dimensions of Auroville, the height and depth and breadth of the place in physical, spiritual, and social terms is so large, and each day filled with so many insights and meetings, that it is difficult to know where to start. Or better, there is so much new …
This is the first time we have really been out of an urban area. With the exception of fields and trees and open skies seen through the window of a bus, our lodging has been in town, our destinations in towns or cities… all human, all urbane, and polished to the degree which things in …
I knew the word, but not the meaning of it, not really. Living in Brazil for years, I knew hard, heavy rains, and long rainy spells. But monsoon — ! Not until now. We had rain on and off all day Friday, and scurried with our newly-bought umbrellas from one spot to another, and in …