Manny says "another noisy city, where you can't walk and breathe at the same time"… and he is right. From 8.30am to 7.00pm, Mangalore presents the same toxic blend of autorickshaws, interstate and local busses, private passenger cars and Jeep lookalikes, bicycles and trucks and pedestrians; you breathe only shallowly, and return to your sleeping …
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 …
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 …
Manny Muros: We are on the road again after a very wonderful week in Auroville…. We will travel all night by bus and arrive at Bangalore tomorrow morning. We will then take a 2nd bus for 3 more hours to Mysore. Hope to settle there by noon tomorrow. Lets see what gifts that part of …
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. …
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 …
Manny Muros: We find ourselves in this land inside of India but not of it… Not unlike the Vatican in Rome. It is the home of highly spiritual and idealistic humans from over 30 countries working to create a society based on higher consciousness. We arrived with monsoon rains making our entrance to this land …
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 …
The french doors which open onto the veranda have been open all night, and the sound of the breakers on the blackstone promenade where alternately lulling us to sleep and calling us out of it. Either the waves or the rain, which greeted us on our arrival in Pondicherry and has come in sheets and …
I feel a real sadness welling up inside of me as we leave Sri Ramanasramam. It was quite short, just a few days, but the spirit of the place and of the people was remarkable. And as is often the case when you are travelling (as opposed to tourism, where one often carries the bubble …