A lot of good energy was directed to other pursuits for a few days. Our intentional Community, Odonata, offered it's first evening in the Sacred Music Series, concerts with musicians whose art is devoted to the spirit through music. Sitartist David Pontbriand and tabla player Amos Libby entertained some sixty people at the Yoga Center …
The real significance of a pet staying out of doors much longer than anticipated — a cat or a teen, let's say — is in remembering that the whole of this one short life is taken in through five (or more) senses and played out inside of our own being. It is the interplay of …
The archer strengthens the bow arm, grips the leather, nocks an arrow, and bends the sinew to the corner of the mouth. Breath enters as the bow is drawn, breath is stilled as the arrow is poised for flight, and all is released together. Release. And the arrow, willed to its destination strikes home. Meditation …
I received a gift from a student, Brian, who recently concluded our Moving Into Balance health and awareness program. Every participant brings such gifts to the group — each brings the gift of him or her Self, all the challenges they face, and all the victories they achieve; but here was a special gift, a …
A beautiful (public?) video from the Aurobindo Press in Pondicherry. My gratitude and acknowledgement to Richard Pettinger (WriteSpirit.net) for finding this entry on YouTube, and sharing with us. "[Ancient India] saw that the complexity of the Universe could not be explained in the present terms of Man, or seen by his superficial sight: that there …
While staying at the Verite Guest House, in Auroville, we were able to practice intentional small-footprint living. That "footprint" is more than where we physically step and leave a trace, but the cumulative and extended affect of our living, from food consumption and by implication food production and distribution, to energy consumption and its similar …
There are many pleasant notions that present themselves, on one's walk through any given day, present themselves like flowers holding their faces to the summer sun… should you choose to look at them, they are there. To disemburden the heart requires practice, however, and patience, as well as a disciplined mind to keep cloud or …
When diving under the bedcovers for a place to snuggle in warmth and security, be sure you don't crawl through a tiny opening in the duvet slipcover instead. Think lobster trap. * When exploring, if you jump into a kitchen cabinet where the plates and cups are kept… … should you jump into a kitchen …
A song was running through my head all day today, a thread of sound sewn from the inside out, arriving at the inner ear audibly enough that I began to sing along… and so the music, which had already been part of the world, returned to it. What we take into us, changes us. What …
The trail which brought Manny and me to Auroville had continued west from Pondy to Mysore, to the Tibetan Settlements near Kushalnagar, over Karnataka's Western Ghats, to fall (rather heavily) to earth on Goa's southern beaches. Good relaxation, if a little empty after the heights of spiritual and community travel we had engaged in to …
The boys are taking numbers to stand in line again born with an open hand which of them will be men today and draw a card that wins? They're looking for a future looking for their rising star to shine above the fields a voice shouts from the doorway "C'mon in, boy, you're hired." They …
Silence is usually understood to be something negative, something empty, an absence of sound, of noises. This misunderstanding is prevalent because very few people have ever experienced silence. All that they have experienced in the name of silence is noiselessness. But silence is a totally different phenomenon. It is utterly positive. It is existential, it …