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What's Coming Up?? Yogic Living Weekend Retreat is next weekend. Looking forward to a great couple of days up at Springbrook. Just being out among the trees and clean air up there really brings in a sense of peace and harmony.
What's been?? The Hiroshima day peace vigil was both beautiful and inspiring. About 70 gathered to commerate Hiroshima day and commit to creating a peaceful future. We walked from the SLSC along the path up towards the headland, where we had a couple of speakers, a 1 minute candlelight meditation, and music by singer/songwriter Loren, a long time favourite of ours, not just for his angelic voice and heartfelt lyrics, but for his community spirit and desire to contribute to a better world. His daughter, 3, treated us with a song from one of the future generation. As he sang “Imagine” he was joined by a lovely older gent who improvised with lyrics calling for a nuclear free future, and then went on to describe passionately his experience visiting Hiroshima only a few years after the bombing, and call for all of us to join together to ensure that our future was free from such events. I believe every day should be Hiroshima day. That we should remember every day the consequences of our actions, and the actions of man as a whole, and use that knowledge to inspire actions that bring about peace and wellbeing for all. As Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says “forgetting is the enemy”. As well as a daily routine (dinacharya) Ayurveda recommends a seasonal routine (ritucharya). In winter the digestive fire is high. Thus we are hungrier and tend to crave and eat more sweet and heavy food. This eventually increases ama (the sticky, toxic product of undigested food) in our body and mind. When the volume of Ama becomes great, the Srotas, the microcirculatory channels of the body, become clogged and we feel lethargic and congested with vague aches and pains As spring approaches so too does the heat. The increasing heat is liquefying this cold damp 'kapha' ama and thus, if we are to follow nature's course, we need to help this 'thawing' process along and look to cleanse our body from these heavy, damp, cold qualities. Especially after the age of 40, when your body’s own cleansing and rejuvenating capability starts slowing down, supporting it with a cleansing regime at the junctures of seasons is important for ongoing health and vitality. A Kapha pacifying diet and lifestyle is best. Exercise more (more yoga!), skip day sleeps, and eat a nourishing, warm, light diet If you avoid eating heavy, cold, hard-to-digest foods, and avoid or reduce the sweet, sour, and salty tastes, your digestive system will be more efficient in burning away the accumulated Ama. Generally one needs to favour cooked, warm, light food. Here ama and the ‘thawed out’ Kapha (mucous etc.) needs to be heated, dried out, and lightened. Warmed drinks with stimulating spices are important. A detoxifying “tea” is even better. Sip it hot, or if you have a Pitta body type or have a hot/oily imbalance, then drink it warm. This will help melt the Ama that has accumulated.
Bring 2lt of pure water to a rolling boil. Add the herbs/spices listed below, turn off heat after a couple of minutes and let steep for about 15-20 minutes. Strain and pour the water into a thermos. Sip the tea through the day, especially 15 minutes after a meal. 1/2 tsp cumin seed, 1 clove, 1-2 slices fresh ginger root, 1/2 tsp fennel seed, 2 fresh mint or Tulsi leaves(Holy Basil)
Triphala, a classical ayurvedic herbal combination of three fruits, helps cleanse and tone the entire digestive tract, strengthens the digestion to deter further ama formation and strengthens and purifies the liver. Micheal offers regular Ayurvedic consultations here at the centre to book a consultation with him, just ask one of the teachers.
Sometimes I feel a bit blue trying to explain the importance of social conscience in the life of a yogi, so I have decided to leave it to the masters to give a perspective.
No man could be actively non-violent and not rise up against social injustice, no matter where it occurred - Mahatma Gandhi
The first condition of non-violence is justice all round in every department of life. Perhaps it is too much to expect of human nature. I do not, however, think so. No one should dogmatize about the capacity of human nature for degradation or exaltation – Mahatma Gandhi
The tapas (disciplines) and other hand yogas that were practised in other yugas (ages/times)do not work now. What is needed in this yuga is giving, helping others. Atmano mokshartham Jagad hritayacha – for one's own spiritual release and for the good of the world -Swami Vivekananda
Being Peace is doing Peace – Thich Nhat Hanh
A nice story from Thich Nhat Hanh to finish: One winter my friend Jim came to stay with me. I usually wash the dishes after the evening meal before sitting down and drinking tea with everyone else. One night, Jim asked if he might wash the dishes. I said “Go ahead, but if you wash the dishes you must know the way to wash them”. Jim replied, “Come on, you think I don't know how to wash dishes?” I answered “There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes”...If we cannot wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future – and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life. (Abbreviated from the book “the miracle of mindfulness”)
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