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| An ideal place for meditation at Brahma Kumari Centre Frankston Vic |
My practice has been ever deepening, as it does.
And of course I got so very busy preparing everything in advance for the big trip I took in January. There was simply no time for the reflection it takes to allow these posts to emerge as I put things in place that allowed me to be absent for three weeks. Over the past nine weeks my yoga students on Tuesdays and Saturdays have been coming on that journey with me as I answered the inevitable question, "How was your trip?" fully and honestly.
The trip was a pilgimage led by Christopher "Hareesh" Wallis, a Sanskrit scholar and initiated Tantrik Yoga practitioner with whom I began studies last year. In the combination of Hareesh's scholarship, his practice, extraordinary teaching gift, enormous generosity, his energy and good humour I have discovered offerings that are speaking right to my core. To say that the pilgimage through Tamil Nadu was life-changing sounds like a cliché, but it is true nevertheless.
Thank you to all the students who came on that journey during our yoga classes together over the past nine weeks. Reliving it with you has been a great consolidation for me and I hope some of its immensity was translated through our classes for you, and you caught the flavour of "How was my trip?". And as we reached it's conclusion something else happened. The Christchurch attack rocked us all to the core.
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| The Arunachaleswara Temple at Tiruvanamallai (pictured here from the Arunachala Mountain) is aligned ona lay line East to West straight to the heart of the mountain. Om namah sivaya. The mantra came alive in me at this temple. |
In a video post after that event, Hareesh shared something really special. A Sanskrit prayer for the wellbeing of all. Hareesh posts a lot, and they are all gems of teaching. But this one had a special spark, and was in response to those dreadful events in Christchurch where 50 worshippers were murdered at prayers in their mosques by an extreme right, Australian born terrorist. We were all horrified. This is not who we are. Our hearts were crying.
Three heart to heart chats, with a teacher, a friend and a student contributed to the shift. I must proclaim my own heartfelt yearning and in that public proclamation fully confess, and be, what it is I am called to teach. And I really began that ownership in my Sunday morning class. Thank you dear people who were present at that Sunday Meditation Body and Mind. I felt totally vulnerable and your support was wonderful.
You can listen to Hareesh's words through the link below, but here is a paraphrase of what he said, a rough transcription, please forgive inaccuracies:
No one can doubt that we are in challenging and troubled times, especially politically and environmentally. No one who is paying attention can doubt that this quickening, this intensification, can only increase over the next decades. We don’t know what the outcome will be for the survival of our civilisation, of our species, of our planet, and it can feel as if we are standing on the brink sometimes, as we look at the rise of tribalistic ideologies and wondering if humanity will be able to overcome this tribalism which is an instinct in our brains to our evolutionary biology. And of course, the unknown factor here is awakening. In the time of quickening and intensification there are more opportunities for spiritual awakening. And awakening is what allows us to truly transcend our divisiveness within us and between us. It allows us to transcend this tribalism, it allows us to transcend even our evolutionary instincts and to see ourselves in each other, despite all our differences. Also in a time of quickening and intensification, prayers offered from the deepest heart are more powerful."Awakening is what allows us to truly transcend our divisiveness within us and between us. It allows us to transcend this tribalism, it allows us to transcend even our evolutionary instincts and to see ourselves in each other, despite all our differences."
And then, the translation of the first stanza of the prayer:
May the wicked become good. May the good obtain peace. May the peaceful be freed from bonds. May the freed set others free.It is the perfect storm. In class for the first time I publicly declared my heart's deepest yearning, and I said these words:
Oh it is such a long, long time I have known my heart's true yearning. But for a long, long time I also dismissed it as a ridiculous fantasy, or not for the very ordinary folk like me. Engaging with the teachings of Richard Miller through iRest® have shown me it is not pie in the sky. Early flashes of insight were not imagined, and those flashes actually meant I could not not pursue it, no matter how long I looked in another direction. The very ordinary like me (or you) can attain to awakening, to freedom from the bonds of forgetting who we truly are.I dedicate my practice to awakening. I dedicate my teaching to awakening.
Some people distil their Heartfelt Desire to a single word. Mine has been distilled as a feeling for a very long time, but when I turn it into words it is longer, one word does not seem to express it all, at least in English, how big it is! And in the last twelve months the first line was added to it.
Here it is, my heart on a platter. What does my heart yearn?
I am not pretending that my reason for being is anything less. And to the degree that I have been freed from bonds, it is my duty to set others free. And that is the reason why I am called to teach. No pretending.Stable in awakeningAwake … to AwarenessOpen … to OpennessAt one with OnenessManifesting as loving kindness and compassion.
Which doesn't mean that I will not lead many wonderful movement classes where we stretch and strengthen and explore yoga posture, hathayogasana. Or that I will not also be dedicated to sharing how you might move more freely and with less stiffness and pain. Only in every class I teach I will no longer pretend that my personal goal is anything but being fully awakened, and as far as I have explored that path and fully embodied it, I am a teacher of that path.
Well it may have been obvious for some time, but it is also true that I have tried not to scare folk off with all this spiritual stuff. But hey, it is who I am, it is my calling, now I am owning it.
What is your true heartfelt desire, your yearning? Are you, like I have for so long, not fully acknowledging it? I have to say, it feels totally liberating to have put it out there.
Here are the words and translation of that lovely Sanskrit prayer.
Durjanaḥ sajjano bhῡyāt
Sajjanaḥ śāntim āpnuyāt
Śānto
mucyeta bandhebhyo
muktaś cānyān vimocayet
Svasti
prajābhyaḥ paripālayantām
Nyāyyena
mārgena mahim mahīśā
Go-brāhmaṇebhyaḥ śubham astu nitya
Lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu
Kāle
varṣatu parjanyaḥ
Pṛthivī śasya-śālinī
Deśo’yam
kṣobha-rahito
brāhmaṇāḥ santu
nirbhayāḥ
May
it rain at the right time. May the earth have storehouses full of grain. May
this country be free of disturbances. May spiritual practitioners be free of
persecution.
Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ
Sarve santu
nirāmayāḥ
Sarve
bhadrāṇi paśyantu
Mā
kaścid-dukha-bhāg-bhavet
May
all be happy. May all be healthy. May all see only auspicious sights. May no
one have a share in sorrow.
Sarvas
taratu durgāni
Sarvo bhadrāṇi paśyatu
Sarvaḥ kāmān avāp-notu
Sarvaḥ sarvatra
nandatu
May
everyone surmount their difficulites. May everyone see only auspicious sights.
May everyone have their heartfelt desires fulfilled. May everyone everywhere be
glad.
Svasti
mātra-uta pitre no astu
Svasti ghobhyo jagate puruṣebhya
Viśvam
subhῡtaṁ suvidatraṁ no astu
Jyogeva
dṛśyema sῡryam.
May
blessings fall on our mother and father; blessings on the animals, the people
and the earth. May everything of ours flourish and be an aid to wisdom. And
long may we see the sun.
Om
śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śānti
Om
peace peace peace
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| Different views and details of a box made at a Sankalpa workshop in 2018. I placed this box on the altar during class when I shared my heart. |
