Sat Chit Ananda, Street Theatre and Ecological Spirituality

Well it is certainly hard to follow up that last blog. That was definitely an intense experience, which has continued to affect me.
I want to say thank you also, to everyone who is staying with me and continuing to read my blog! It makes me feel so warm and loved to read your comments! :) You really are going through this with me.
I have been extremely busy recently, doing some amazing things- making raw food with Anandi is one experience I have been drawn into powerfully. She is a magic-mama in the kitchen, and is full of wisdom, laughter, lightness and warmth. I am learning so much from her every day I go. She has decided to name her raw restaurant "Satchitananda". Sat means truth, Chit is consciousness, and Ananda means Bliss. the restaurant is planned to open in 6 weeks. I am excited to be a part of its grand opening.
The other day at Anandi's, we went for a nature walk to learn about some of the local plants and their medicinal and nutritional qualities. Before we even stepped foot off the property, Anandi said, "And now we must begin here. You have to learn, to start in your very own backyard, to find the abundance which awaits you." We found so many plants, and she had a story and information for all of them. Afterwards, we put all our greens into a yummy green juice with pineapple. Before eating and drinking each day, we all hold hands, feel our gratitude rising within us, and OM together. I swear, treating food as such a spiritual, communal ritual makes me so deeply happy. I wish that we treated the food we put into our bodies as more sacred all the time. If we don't, how can it really fulfill us? Food is not simply physical fuel, it is our greatest connection to the material world, and to nature. What we put into our bodies from the earth IS sacred, and to give it energy, blessing it and respecting it brings such a beauty and power to the interaction. It makes me feel fulfilled on an emotional, energetic, and even I could say spiritual level.
This morning I spent my time in the village. I am planning to make a video documentary illustrating the beauties of village life. This project is working with Balu through Mohanam. However, I feel overwhelmed, because I don't have much filming experience, and this feels like a really big project! However, I am taking it bit by bit, and trying to portray what I see as artistically, honestly, and accessibly as possible. I have been working with this wonderful woman Sudha, who is a teacher at Mohanam. She has been my tour guide and translator essentially, bringing me everywhere I want to go in the village, and making connections so that I can talk to the villagers. She is eager to help! So today, I was fortunate enough to interview a street theatre artist. He has been doing it for 30 years, and talked spiritedly about his work, the problems with modern culture (film is becoming more important, and street theatre is declining), and his work teaching the children of Mohanam the craft. Then I was lucky to film some teenage boys perform some street theatre. I didn't understand what they were saying, but it was really fun! They have raised money to go to Thaliand next week for an international music festival. They will perform some traditional Tamil drumming and dancing there. I am excited for them!
I have also started classes with my group. Our main class is called"Nature, Spirit, and Political Theory". It has been really interesting so far. OUr group is the most diverse yet according to Karen, our teacher. We come from all kinds of different backgrounds spiritually; we have a couple of Christians, a Muslim, a couple of Buddhist-aligned people, a couple of Pagan-aligned people, some atheists, and many mixed or confused people. We all agree though that we are here to find ourselves spiritually. However, when discussing such things as how religion can relate to ecology in the face of this huge environmental crisis, some really deep values are put up for questioning, and it is hard to keep an open mind without being so attached to your own view. It has been really great so far though; the group is really tight-knit, and we all enjoy spending time together. I look forward to continue bringing up questions about ecology, and how we can relate to the earth and the material world from a more spiritual standpoint. As it is, things like politics and the environment are dealt with from a very rational point of view; but perhaps belief could be essential in re-framing our relationship to the earth. Because one thing is obvious: our consumerism has to change. As Karen puts it, we are living in a system that is linear: from mining resources, to production, to consumption, to waste. However, nature works in cyclical patterns. Thus, we are living in a system that has violated the patterns of nature. We have to learn how to round the corner of our linear system, and simplify our own lives so as to work in tandem with our Earth. What is needed is a change of consciousness. Then we will realize that MORE does not actually make us happy. Then we can practice contentment, and focus our energy instead on striving to live in alignment with Nature.
But what drives us most is our beliefs. These are deeply held. So to examine them, and see what we hold as most important in our lives, is essential.
I am really tired right now, so I hope this all makes sense. :) There are many more details I could go into, but I hope this gives you a little overview of some of the things I have been doing.
As always, I am thinking of you and holding you all in my heart. :) Be well!

What is the Balance of Inner and Outer Connection?

Wow. Things here on the Auroville program have been BUSY! The past few days, we have biked around the entire area of Auroville and some surrounding Tamil Nadu villages, experiencing a little of what is going on in some organizations. They are all fascinating! We did some work on the “Buddha Garden” farm, we played with village children in their banyan trees and sand boxes, we strolled through the sprawling botanical gardens, we heard about what goes on at the Healing Center for village women, we learned about natural herbal remedies, and we got caught in a late-season monsoon!

Tonight, we finally went to the Mohanam Cultural Center! I feel like I already had a connection with it, since my friend Allexa volunteered there last year, and my friend Mario threw a, amazing benefit concert for it recently in Seattle.

The place was warm and magical- upon arriving, three beautiful little girls greeted us with fresh flowers and donned us with red bindis, which is both a spiritual practice and a celebration of friendship. Then they gave us a performance of incredible Indian dance and theatre. It was such a sweet place- yellow and bright in color, which mirrored the inspirational energy wafting through it. We were fortunate enough to speak with Baloo, the owner of Mohanam, who has an infectuously bright spirit, and is a local who has grown up in the very same village. His vision with the center is to keep the culture of Tamil Nadu alive and thriving through traditional dance, music, crafts, healing, and other ancient practices. He spoke about how the world- including the villages – is growing exponentially toward modernism. Some people want to keep forging forward at lightspeed, but it is so important to remember the roots of where we have come from, and hold our own culture as something to be celebrated. Mohanam aims to keep this culture alive through giving village children the freedom to explore different aspects of their own culture through learning from their elders, as well as giving them the freedom to express themselves in their own creative ways.

Being in the center, I felt alighted with a sense of expansion, culture, purpose, mystery, and “real-India”. This has been something the group has been grappling with since we’ve been here:  Auroville is very much an oasis within surrounding areas of poverty. It is unbelievable sometimes to see the inequality of wealth living so closely together. It is a very complex undertaking for many of the organizations that we’ve visited to work on weaving together the village culture and the western culture in mutually positive ways. One example is the Matrimandir: the towering golden lotus center of Auroville. It is huge, plated in real gold, and solely a place for Aurovillians to meditate and find their inner selves. If you scan about 40 yards away, you will find malnourished people living in rags and piled trash. They live in extremely close quarters, calling home to small straw and mud huts. Everywhere in the villages you will find many stray dogs, even more cows, and disease-ridden, stagnant water. There is a big question that the group is facing: are things like the matrimandir inappropriate and selfish if there is such obvious poverty existing right in its shadow? It is easy to turn away from these realities when you are surrounded by the comforts of home and western living, but it is not such an easy thing to deny when it is right in front of you. Can one fulfill their truest spiritual purpose better by “going within” to realize their inner self, or by giving of their self to help others who are in need?

  Like I said, these are big questions that we will continue to talk about this quarter. I personally have been staying unattached to any emotional conviction about the issue so far, because honestly, I don’t know the answer. I feel that if you put these questions in different lights, it becomes a lifelong question of balance between cultivating self-connection, and acting with empathy and care for others.

            So as of now, I feel really drawn to working in the Mohanam Center. I ask myself: When else will I have the opportunity to interact with village children in an open creative environment and go out to learn about the local village culture in hopes of helping it to persevere? I do love raw food and have great passion for it, but I feel that I can foster my passion for it at home just as easily as I can here. Mohanam seems to call to my sense of community building, desire to expand my horizons and deepen my understanding of the world, and challenge my comfort zone by exploring a very different reality.

So… wish me luck! J I hope you all are enjoying the first part of 2011! My love is with you all!