White Light Pillar

I have been meditating in guided group-form recently.
Tonight, I felt myself connected to a vertical column of white-light energy.
This column ran through my spine, up and down, giving space to my chakras all along it.
It took me over suddenly: One minute I was sitting, listening to my teacher's voice, and feeling the usual discomforts: my back ached, my mind wandered incessantly. Then suddenly, but slowly, I realized that there was a definite sensation in my spine: Yes, I felt like I was coming into Presence. The words my teacher spoke then, I can't recall them exactly now, but they came to my awareness as fitting perfectly the flow of my perception. There was space in my consciousness, and I allowed this light-beam sensation to take me over.
In doing this, I was still able to feel the usual things: my back still ached, and my foot was asleep. But it was like my real sensation was behind this, and above it: in alignment with the light pole, which came in from the top of my head, extending upwards. It also connected through and down my lower back and into the ground. I was able to take full belly-breaths, and this powerful alignment remained. It was solid, but breathable.
"I am permeable in my abode."

This sensation was very powerful, and I think I like meditation. :)
I feel that I was experiencing a chakra-alignment through my crown chakra, which I have rarely done.

It was wonderful! The soft orange glow of the lights and the presence of the Dalai Llama's pictures framed a nice exterior as well. And when my teacher said, "Take the breaths you need. Then slowly come back to this room, to your friends." I felt comfortable leaving this inner place of peace. I know that it is there to be explored always, accessed in new ways, and available more and more in my life as I practice the embodiment of it over time.

Forests Growing People

Oh my god. Tonight I fell in love!

...With Sadhana Forest.

I have been hearing about this place more than any other since I have been here. Laina, my High School friend, returned to Auroville just to live in Sadhana. April, my new fire-hooping friend, is living there. Karen sas said it is like a new, mini-Auroville. And all this prepared me only vaguely for the experience of contact I was to have with this place!

Every little detail of Sadhana speaks of love, community, creativity, spark. There are little gardens in the shapes of hearts and moons; huge intricate dreamcatchers in every building. And the buildings themselves--- oh wow. They are all straw huts of different sizes, simple to inhabit but sturdily and intricately built. They are so homey and earth-connected to be in. Sitting in the biggest community-center hut, with dozens of conscious conversations going on around, was like being in a native community- at the same time ancient, and fresh with the innovation of sustainable work.

Perhaps I should interject in this excited ramble a bit about what Sadhana does. Sadhana Forest was started seven years ago by an Iranian couple. They began it as a community based firstly on reforestation. This remains to be Sadhana’s main project. Five days after the community was started, a volunteer showed up, asking if there was anything he could do to help. Since that day, the community has not gone without volunteers. Now, there are over 100 volunteers. That is actually how Sadhana runs. They run on a “gift-economy” model, which means they don’t depend on direct-monetary trade. They describe their system as more of a triangle- they give their work, others (like friends and supporters) give money to them, and they give this money to the local workers and suppliers that they need materials from. So the volunteers work daily to run the community, in all aspects – from the actual reforestation, to the Healing Hut (with ayurveda, massage, reiki, and everything volunteers bring), to cleaning the (many) composting toilets! (Our tour guide actually started the tour off with the toilets, saying that our poop would be a great contribution to them, since they use human waste to feed the forest. “So please,” he urged us, “if you contribute anything to us, contribute your poop!”) :)

I could go on about Sadhana. I love it. I hope these few pictures I include will be worth more words than I can write here to describe the place- but one key thing in the experience was the movie.

Every Friday, Sadhana opens up to visitors for a tour, a movie and a vegan dinner (they are all vegan). Today, there were around 100 visitors! (We all crammed sweatily onto rickety buses from Auroville, which is about 20 mintues away.) The movie they played tonight was called “What About Me?” I highly recommend it to anyone who jives with Eckhart Tolle, Michael Franti, Ram Das, Deepak Chopra, or any spiritual/new age social ideas. It was incredible, and so full that I need to watch it again to break it down! Essentially, the message was: we so easily get into thinking about ourselves, and identifying with different roles. This ego-consciousness leads to suffering. We need to stop identifying with our pain, and let ourselves be more than that. One speaker said, "worrying is just praying for what you don't want." ...Hey, I should stop doing that! 

So the kicker for all of this is: Sadhana started a second project just a year ago, and they really need people to be a part of helping it to grow. And it is located in Haiti. …Did I mention that I am hoping to do an central/south America trip in the next year?...

We shall see what happens! But I was so inspired by the sustainable community of Sadhana, I know that I will be plunging my journeys into being part of this kind of work.

Tibetan Beach Day

       So I don’t think I’ve told you this  yet, but there is a group of about 20 Tibetan orphans staying at the Tibetan Pavilion with us. They are all between 13 and 16, and they live in a school in Darmsala.

      Before every meal, they sing an elaborate chant, paying homage to the 1^st through 4^th Dalai Llamas. So now, instead of loud village music being my alarm clock every morning, it is Tibetan chanting!

Up until today, we really haven’t had too much connection with them; both groups are very busy, and language is a barrier. But recently our group decided that it would be nice to give Kalsang, the wonderwoman who runs this place, a break of a few hours. So today we all divided up and took the kids for adventures!

      Henry, Jessica, Sarah and I took 4 girls to the beach. Though I was reluctant to go at first because of my aching for alone time, it ended up being so fun. We rode through the village in a little adventure group, cruising past the bright shops and village bustle. We arrived at the tranquil beach after the bike adventure, and all the girls were so excited! This is the first beach they have ever been to. Then we all joined hands, and ran yelling into the waves!

      It was a good experience for me in a different way too, because though I love the beach and feel very comfortable with it, I have too many memories of being dragged in the sand by intense Santa Cruz waves. Consequently, I have been avoiding swimming! But having the Tibetan girls with us today really eased me to break out of my shell, and swim out past the waves to go bodysurfing! Henry and I helped one of the girls out about 30 feet into the water. She was scared, but was a good swimmer. Once we got past the breaking, we could float on our backs, being carried gently by the lulling waves. It was so enlivening, rejuvenating, peaceful, and lovely! The brightly painted, wooden fishing boats flanked us in the distance. It was such a wonderful experience.

      It amazes me what bright, open, sharing and friendly people these kids are. When I hear “Tibetan orphan”, I think of a suffering life. However spending time with these kids has really opened me up to seeing past that simple perception. They are genuinely interested in connecting and sharing with us, and they have aspirations just like me. 

"I Like Babies".

Oh my gosh, life is gettin' busy! I hate to admit it, but I think I may be getting to point of "oh no! We have such little time left here, will I get to do everything I want to do?!" I don't like this feeling! I have written a list though of things I want to do before I leave (as if that will help me do them!) - But the latest is to lead a movement/dance workshop. :) Some people in my group have been urging me to do it, and after some impromptu group dance sessions and a fabulous dance workshop yesterday - lead by an Aurovillian woman - I think I will do it!
The dane session yesterday was great. It was very eye-opening for me too. Dance communities are my academic and passionate focus in life right now, and the approach that we took yesterday was so great! She first read us a poem, "The Invitation" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer (READ IT!), then we talked about what  our biggest hopes in life are, and what is holding us back from embodying them. Then we put on music, and just danced about them! The simplicity and accessibility of this was wonderful and refreshing. Dance is for everybody! :)
Today has had quite a bit of dancing for me as well. I went to Mohanam and danced with the kids - again - whew! What a wipeout! But SO fun. In the morning when I got there, we did some chanting and om-ing together. I reflected how amazing and DIFFERENT it is for three-year-old children to be learning these inward practices in their preschools! What if American kids were taught those practices...? Food for thought!
In the village, I also was fortunate enough to witness a very personal and sacred task today. I went to the hut of a new mother- she has a one-month-old baby. This morning, the Medicine Woman of the village came over to give the baby a bath. This happens every other day for the babies in the village until they are 3 months old. It has ritual as well as physical meaning. It was pretty intense to watch- the baby was face-down, longwise on the Medicine woman's lap. She would vigorously scrub his whole body with soap, then splash hot water all over him and just as vigorously scrub it all off. The water was pretty hot, and the baby was screaming the entire time. The task had an attitude of "Oh you will be fine baby, this is to purify you, and pain is not bad. This is something you must go through, it is good for you. It is okay to treat you a bit roughly and it is okay that you are crying. This is part of the process." Watching it was a bit surprising for me, as it made me realize how differently we treat our babies in the US! We are so much more tender - generally speaking! - and less brusk. However, sometimes perhaps we are too tender- maybe the survivalist human instinct is bred out of American children because of how careful we are with them. (Often times when a baby cries, all the energy is directed towards calming them down immediately! However, isn't this an illusion- that our pain can be shushed away instantaneously? Maybe this pattern contributes to the quick-fix mentality we have in our Western materialist society.) Perhaps the village children here get instilled in them a respect for their elders through rituals such as this. Perhaps these practices contribute to the more ascetic, inwardly-connected culture of India.
Of course, these are huge generalizations! But just- food for thought. That is all.
Okay, quick update today~ I love you!

Giving Time, The Earth is Alive

Hello everyone! Well it is Sunday morning, and I am lingering over a rare treat, COFFEE. :) I have been thinking recently about spirituality, and where I fit into the universe of spiritual callings. I have never thought about in as concrete a way before; I have always just internalized the awareness that I am a spiritual person. However, when you look at spirituality from a more academic lens, and realize that there are major labeled spiritual paths, it becomes an interesting interaction. 

For our class, we are now reading about earth "religions", or worship of the earth. Such paths include "Gaia spirituality", and "Gaia Naturalism". However, similarly, there is also "Spiritual animism" and "natural animism". These are all basically slight variations on the same sentiment: that the earth is sacred and alive. (I never knew people could break it down into such sub-categories!) And I suppose, when talking across borders, these kinds of categorizations are at least helpful. And why not bring spirituality into the academic realm? It is true that until recently, it hasn't been considered appropriate to speak of personal spiritual experience in the world of academia. And yet, this is such an essential function of human life. It does feel a bit awkward trying to box my spiritual beliefs into such terminology, but it is a useful exercise. I am not actually aiming to define it, but it is helpful to exercise my brain in the pursuit of communicating my experiential wisdom in myriad settings. 

So, I realized that I feel akin to this idea of Gaia spirituality, and so I bought the book The Secret Life of Plants. So far it is very interesting: plants and humans do communicate!

Other than that, I had a wonderful day on Friday. I helped in Anandi's kitchen all day to prepare for a big raw food buffet! We made raw soup, mashed cauliflower, salald, chocolate mousse, cheesecake, and a whole gala of other sorts for about 150 people. Then we went to serve it, and it was a flurry of marvelous activity! I can say that I was really in a kind of heaven- serving masses of yummy sacred raw food to so many people! And all my friends were there coming through the line. It was magnificent, and I snacked on raw chocolate mousse the entire time. (I could live on that stuff!) Somewhere in the process, though, I realized that for the first time really, I really received so much joy out of just giving my effort and time to help. There was no exchange of money in it for me; I just wanted to absorb myself into the act of giving my services. It was a really energetic experience! Especially since I have so much care for raw food, it was easy to give so much time and energy to just this simple task of giving. 

It made me reflect on the value of volunteering though- to really put your agenda aside to give your time and energy to someone's cause is really rewarding for everyone involved. Good karma, as they would say here!

Here are a few pictures highlighting a couple of fun events in my life recently:

There was a world dance show in Auroville a couple of nights ago! Amazing dancers :)

The puppies just opened their eyes a couple of days ago! They can almost walk too.

Adorable affectionate money family just chillin' on a temple.

Jacky, this is for you: Shiva's sacred Bull, Nandi. There are cows ALL over the temple!

So tiny!

I love you all so much! And as always, thank you for the inspirational and heartfelt, soulful comments~ We are so connected!

Mohanam Kids and the Village Threshold

So, I have not told you about the Mohanam kids yet!
Every Wednesday, I am going to the Mohanam Cultural Center, to interview different villagers with my camera, and also to play with the kids! Every week, I am giving the children dance workshops. The kids are between 2 and 4, so these mostly consist of guided improvisations. We put on Indian music, and they mimic my movements and vocal expressions, like this: "Wave your hands in the air! Now dive down! Pat the ground! Now grow up, like a flower!" -It is so fun. The kids are SO cute, and they just come alive when we dance! At the end of each song, they all scream and jump and clap, "YAAAAAYYY!!!!" Sometimes it becomes very chaotic, only as expected when you have 20 three-year-olds running around, knocking into each other! Some of them get into fights vying for positions on my lap! They are all so adorable though, and it is so fun to dance and play with them. For all the kindergarten teachers out there, I don't know how they do it everyday! These kids have SO much energy, and consequently I am exhausted after being with them for three hours! But once a week is a special event for all of us to come together.
Going into the village each week is in itself an event. Since Auroville is such an oasis, there is a definite feeling of crossing a threshold when I enter the village. I go over this rough hilly pass, through two small lakes and a beautiful grove of trees. Then I enter the village, through a deep, ever-existing puddle of brown water.
People say that India is the fastest-developing nation in the world. I don't see that. Instead, I see: a man reading the newspaper barefoot on his porch at 9:30 AM. I see three women, sitting close together under a palm tree, braiding flowers into each other's hair. I see a gang of dogs and a couple of monkeys having a face-off on the corner of a dirt road. I see tiny huts made of earth and straw, and old women napping in the entrance.
I also see trash everywhere on the sides of the streets. I see standing pools of brown, algae-ridden, disease-laden water. I see about 10 mangy dogs on every street. I see beautiful trees overlooking ponds- eucalyptus, acacia, and other swaying types. But the trash at their feet impinges upon their naturalness.
In the village, I see people- living close to the earth. I see people living close to their sacred cows, and their stray dogs. I see people living a life that they know in their bones is theirs to live. Do they want to be living it? Maybe not. It does not matter- because they live so close to the earth, they can hear its wisdom thumping on their bare feet. It is like the Tamil-Indian Heartbeat to which they are connected.

Solitude Eco-Music Fest

So, yesterday was a kind of culmination I think- or maybe just continuation- of this familiar feeling I have been having!
I spent all day at the Eco-Music fest in Solitude Farm. There were over 800 people there total, and many bands played!
I hung out with the other yearly student group that comes to Auroville: Living Roots. It is a US program that sends young people to different Eco-Villages around the world. Everyone on the program is really down-to-earth. We jumped into the deep well at Solitude, which was really scary at first, but it felt SO refreshing to swim in un-chlorinated water!!
We then played hackey sack and danced at the music stage. It was weird, I had this feeling of deja-vu that passed in and out of my consciousness the whole time. Maybe it was because being with a bunch of American hippie-folk dancing to live music in the sunshine felt SO familiar, and yet I would look around me and see banana fields, Indian people in saaris, and remember that I am in INDIA! It was a very interesting sense of community: many travelers were there, from around the world, just passing through this place. There was a feeling of new-ness; Auroville is only 40 years old, so it doesn't have that feeling of roots or history; it has fresh-roots, building roots. It is young. None of us have been here very long! SO it is a lot of very different, international people coming together to create community. It was a very unique feeling.
The music was great though, and I even added to it by - did I tell you I bought the guitar?? Yes, a cute little pink guitar named Lyla. She fits in my backpack! She has a BEAUTIFUL sound for such a teeny lady, and is a perfect travelling guitar. I sat up on a bamboo structure and jammed for a little while with some of the Living Roots girls.
I then had a BLAST helping to sell kombucha with Anandi and her helpers. I was kept very busy by people who wanted kombucha, and it was fun to tell people about it who didn't know! I felt like I was helping to share the living foods spirit by passing on information. :)
Then, by nightfall, there was an international jazz band playing: a tall-thin African bass player with dreads down to his knees, an old French drummer with a white turban, a rockstar Indian guitar player, and a European female singer in a wheelchair. I liked their diversity, and they were incredible! So, I GOT. DOWN. ;P It felt SO good to finally rip-roarin' DANCE it out under the stars: orion's belt was right above me!, and the tall banana trees, and so many dancing happy people!
Then an awesome Brazilian/Portuguese band played: "Yemadas" is their name. They used to be "Nomadas" because they are nomads, but wanted to be positive instead of negative so they changed the "no" to "Yeah". I liked that. ;)
Well, they had people dancin', and when later on they called out, "We are waiting for a samba dancer to come up onstage!", I bet you can guess who raced up there first! ;)
All in all, it was a great experience; I feel like I am getting more and more integrated into the community of Auroville. I am starting to recognize many people, and make connection between friends. In opposition to my usual 9 PM bedtime, though, staying out until 2 AM made me feel almost hungover this morning, and made me appreciate the more mellow lifestyle I have been living so far!
~*~*~*~
Ahhh, it is so beautiful here though, and it is hard to stay bad-feeling for long. I am now sitting at the American Pavilion, listening to the birds, hitting away the flies, enjoying a raw cacao-&-cashew bar, and feeling sleepy. Halfway through my Auroville trip, here I am. :)