Ahimsa, (non harm-doing) is the first of the yamas, or the ethical rules of yogic practice. Ahimsa is the foundation upon which the rest of the yamas and niyamas are positioned, as well as being the underlying “goal” of practice in general. To do no harm is practically impossible as every action creates affect or karma. So living with purity of intention, compassion and acting in way that benefits and uplifts other beings and our world is considered a good antidote to doing harm by default of living.

Compassion literally means to suffer with. However, there is a line between suffering with, suffering for, and being a doormat. When does empathy become enabling? Where do suffering and self-absorption meet? How do we tend to our needs, the needs of others and the needs of the world at large without being consumed by the tragedy of so much need and so much suffering? All questions that I am pondering and perhaps you are too. I don’t claim to have any answers at all, except that I think the answer lies in the question. If we can we all consistently practice asking ourselves, “What is compassion?” and how we can act with absolute compassion towards ourselves and all beings, then I think we’ll find our way into some working answers in the quite near future.

Do No Harm website is a nice offering to helping us all out with reminders to Do No Harm. I’m rocking one their wristbands and it’s bringing that essential second of contemplation into most moments of my day.

The Do No Harm Message:

We seem to be living in a world that is getting less hospitable every day. Look closely at any endeavor our species has engaged in and it appears we are unaware of the harm we do, we ignore the harm we do, we intentionally do harm for our own gain, or sadly in some cases we do harm for our own pleasure and enjoyment.

Has no one taught us to do no harm?

If we haven’t been taught to do no harm, we see no harm in doing harm. We cause harm and shrug it off. We cause harm and laugh about it. We cause harm and brag about it.

Sadder still, our children bear witness to our actions and never learn to do no harm themselves. Above all else we must teach our children, by example and instruction, this basic moral principle of life.

We must begin to make better choices and treat each other, the other creatures who share this planet with us, and this planet we call home with greater respect and compassion.

We believe that the first and most basic moral law is, “Do no harm.” Because we can feel pain and suffering, we can imagine the pain and suffering of others, and we can act accordingly to minimize the harm we cause.

What does “do no harm” mean? Ultimately it means to give thoughtful consideration to our actions. “Do no harm” simply means to consider how our actions may affect the world we all share, to be compassionate in our dealings with all creatures, and not to thoughtlessly despoil our planet.

Doctors are asked to “first do no harm,” why not lawyers, businessmen, religious leaders and politicians? Why not us? Why not now?

It sounds like a simple idea because it is a simple idea, but it may be effective over the long run. Will “do no harm” solve all the problems in our world? Perhaps not, but this is an effort to decrease the suffering in the world and to increase the kindness.

We hope that “do no harm” becomes that little voice that guides our actions.

And we hope you will join us and spread the message “Do no harm.”

Show everyone you care and use “Do no harm” to sign-off in your correspondence in place of “Best Wishes”, “Yours” or “Regards.”

If you have a web site, be proud of your support and add the words “Do No Harm” to the top of your home page where everyone will see it.

Be bold and creative in thinking of ways to expose as many as possible to the “Do No Harm” message, but please, do no harm in doing so.

It is not necessary to mention the source of the message. This is certainly a case where the message is far more important than the messengers. All we ask is that you practice do no harm and take every opportunity to share the words “do no harm” with others.

If you wish to include this essay or link to the “Do No Harm” web page, please do; or if you wish to change the wording or write your own, that’s equally OK with us. If we are to change our world for the better, we simply must share the “Do No Harm” message with family and friends, with neighbors and our community.

RS: Something I’ve been thinking about a lot is the accessibility of yoga. It’s become an industry and pastime that has an image attached to it that tends to appeal mostly to certain demographics, yet at its heart it’s a practice that could be beneficial to everyone. Beyond all the products attached to it, which really aren’t necessary to own in order to practice, I think that most teachers and studio owners want to make classes appealing and available to everyone without veering too far away from the core principles of yoga philosophy. How do you as a studio owner and proponent of community priced yoga address that?

MS: I kind of see the yoga industry as a reflection of everything else that is going on in society. A few years ago when there was a boom in real estate and the financial industry and everything was becoming commercially marketed, yoga was one of those things. All of a sudden it just exploded and became very popular and there was a lot of money to be made. So the idea of yoga became something that was packaged and marketed and sold to the public in a way that happened to be fairly expensive…

People came to expect certain things in yoga studios; they wanted bamboo floors, a giant buddha statue, a sauna, showers, tea…  And that’s all great. It’s amazing to walk in to your yoga studio and feel like you’re on retreat or something, but then essentially the studio is pricing for a lot more than just the classes, and that price tag will exclude a lot of the community and in some ways I think the image of it all moves away from the essential purpose of the practice in the first place. I had dreamed of opening a low-cost studio for years, sans all the marketability and the stuff that came with it.

My original intention was to open a studio in Baltimore, or on the east coast in more needy, more impoverished cities and to make it accessible to people of color, transgendered people, spanish-speaking communities and the segments of the society that definitely were not being served by the popular model of yoga studios at that time. I carried around that vision for years and I asked people to participate with me and lots of people were supportive but no one really wanted to get into it. Then I did my teacher training at Yoga Pearl and when I finished I just didn’t know where I wanted to be or where I wanted to teach. I personally have felt like an outsider in many studios for whatever reason, I’ve had a pretty colorful past… And so I carried that with me and I never quite felt a sense of belonging, but I was looking for it.

One day I was walking along with a friend and I said “I’m just gonna do it, I’m just going to open a studio.” I found a space on Alberta (street) and luckily the landlord was a hippy who didn’t care if I didn’t know a thing about business, and didn’t make me pay a security deposit and just let me move in, and that’s how we came to be. I mean I knew nothing about making it work, I just knew what I wanted to charge and who I wanted to serve and I was extraordinarily idealistic, I thought everyone was going to really appreciate what I was doing, even the other yoga studios I thought would really appreciate it, and then I came to realize that was not the case, because it’s threatening. You know other studios have worked really hard to build their client base and then I came in offering yoga at half their price, and there was this fear that I would take the students. But actually that didn’t happen and my original intention did happen- the people that previously were unable to take classes came, there were artists and musicians and minorities and all these people who also hadn’t felt like they belonged in other studios and that’s not to say that’s right or wrong, but that’s just the way it was… and we’ve created our own little space and now there are lots of people who say “I feel like this is home for me, I really feel like I belong here. I can walk in here and feel like this is my place.” so I’ve done my purpose i guess.

RS: How did you start to practice yoga?

MS: I had spent most of my twenties severely depressed and extraordinarily angry and I started practicing because my friend who had been struggling with an addiction for a long time had gone to a retreat and had learned some yoga. She came back and she told me about it and kept saying “You should really do this.” Finally I found this $5 drop-in studio and I started going there. I was naturally flexible and I found it really easy right away so when I began I was very competitive with myself, and for maybe the first three years I was pretty much focused on the poses and trying to perfect them.

After I began to practice I noticed that I wasn’t as reactive to things, I wasn’t as depressed or having as many severe depressive episodes and I felt like I could get some distance between my myself and what was going on for me emotionally. It just kind of lessoned what was going on at that time which was a lot of depression, anxiety… It wasn’t all better, but it was definitely more manageable than it had been before and it wasn’t consuming me anymore. For the first few years I was just there, or I thought I was just there to exercise. I really wasn’t even doing anything else at the time, I wasn’t studying philosophy or meditating. I don’t think I even understood the breathing for a few years, I was just doing the asana and I was there for exercise and to perfect poses. But the other benefits came anyway and I remember that when I started doing it all the time I started telling everyone about it. It was such a grounding influence in my life.

Three years later I moved to Portland I was exposed to a lot of different teachers and teaching styles, but even before that that I was noticing other kinds of changes. I was more capable of dealing with stress and I became calmer, less angry and less depressed. None of that happened because I was making any attempt to do any of it, it just came from practicing.

RS: How has being a teacher or a studio owner affected your practice?

MS: Simply studying so much and taking a path that requires so much self-study has really transformed the way I practice and teach. Having the opportunity to look at students bodies and to observe them… You know sometimes there are have things about ourselves that we have a hard time admitting or seeing, but when we see it in someone else then we can say, “Hey wait a second, that feels really familiar, I can relate to that.” And so we learn a lot about ourselves watching other people. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my practice from my students.
Being a studio owner has been interesting in that I have learned what I value in teachers and what I admire, and I have adopted a lot of that in my own practice.

RS: What about the aspect of karma yoga (selfless service), do you feel that there is an element of that with the studio?

MS: Oh yeah! I didn’t get paid for a year and a half! and even now we’re not really bringing that much in. But I’m thrilled every day that we’re doing it. I’m so happy to be in this space, I’m so happy to feel like I’ve found some balance between financially supporting myself and staying true to my original intention and I feel like I’ve stayed on track and it’s been amazing. I feel really lucky.

RS: What was your vision for the future of People’s Yoga?

MS: I really like what we’re doing now! I would eventually like to be able to offer a teacher training at lower cost. I would really like to have guest teachers come in and offer their time and do workshops that are also at a lower cost. But for the time being I really just like what we’re doing and I just want it be sustainable and what will come will come and I’ll know it when it meets me.

RS: What is your vision for the future of community yoga studios in general?

MS: It’s interesting because I get contacted all the time now from people starting studios. When we started, I searched the internet and I searched all over to find other studios that were doing similar things and found like, four. I mean, it was really slim pickings. I had one woman in Arizona from Tuscan Yoga who kind of mentored me through the process and since then I’ve had all these people contacting me from all over the country and asking me to mentor them, so it seems to be growing and everybody wants to know ‘how to do it’.

I don’t really know how… I mean, I think it’s got to be unique to each place. But I think we’re seeing a movement away from a mass commercialization of yoga and I think that in the future there’s going to be a seesawing where people will be trying to find their place, their financial footing, and trying to figure out how to stay alive as a business and still stay in-line with the values that yoga imparts. I think it will all wash out in a few years and we’ll find a middle ground, but I’m not really sure what that looks like yet.

I think that everyone who’s doing the community yoga right now is trying different things and eventually they’ll settle on a model that works. In the meantime there are some successes and some failures, some studios do donation or they do $6, $8 or $10 drop-ins or scholarships. Everyone is doing different things and we’ll find what works best eventually. At The Peoples Yoga our price was originally $6, then I went to sliding-scale ($6-$8), now it’s $8 to drop in, but people can become members for $55 a month and come as much as they want or we do discounted class cards if people buy 5 or 10 classes at a time, and we have scholarships available for people who can’t afford those options.

RS: Have you had that many people apply for scholarships?

MS: We have some regular students that we support every month through scholarship and trade. I probably give out five or six scholarships a month. I haven’t had to turn anybody away, which is great, and everyone that has gotten one has used it.

RS: What is entailed in a scholarship? And what do you trade?

MS: They’re awarded on basis of need. Pretty much they’ll get $40-$50 and they can choose to purchase a 10-class card with that or an unlimited monthly membership. So if they purchase an unlimited monthly then it will cost them $5. If they don’t come as often and then want a 10-class card then it’s $20. So they get that option and they’ll get that credit for every month that they apply for it.

Pretty much all the services that we need that we can trade, we trade; our construction, web design, photography… You name it, I’ll trade it! That means it takes months to get things done, but it does get done!  And since we’re doing yoga then we’re also practicing patience and contentment while we wait!

The People’s Yoga is located at 3016 NE Killingsworth St. in Portland, OR
All classes are $8. Scholarships are available.

The yoga industry is booming. In 2009 Americans spent an estimated $5.7 Billion on yoga and yoga related products like clothes, DVDs and books, that’s a figure that’s up 87% from 2004. 72% of those spending are women, 71% are college educated and 44% have household incomes of $75,000 or more. (From the “Yoga in America” Survey conducted by Harris Interactive Service Bureau on behalf of Yoga Journal)

“The creator of life is inside of me and as long as I can feel that power inside of me, then I will be in good condition and I will be able to help other people. You can’t help other people if you’re negative or if you’re afraid. Never be afraid” – Tao Porchon-Lynch

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Interview with Ryan Leier- Founder of Yoga For Youth and ONE Yoga Saskatoon

RS: Can you tell me about Yoga For Youth? What is it and what do you do?

RL: We’re a non profit organization made up of a group of yoga teachers and what we’re doing is taking yoga to the schools and communities through physical education classes in the public schools, and in after-school programs or though community centers. Our focus is on inner city youth, kids who wouldn’t otherwise have access to yoga classes. For the last year we’ve been working on teaching the inner city kids and then bringing them with us to different parts of town to teach and demonstrate to the kids at other schools.

RS: How many locations are you in right now?

RL: About 20

RS: Are they mostly public schools?

RL: The Catholic schools have been trying to bring us in and they’re really open to what we’re offering. It’s interesting, the Catholic schools want the whole tradition. They want to know the philosophy, the spiritual aspects and the moral codes. I was really surprised in a good way at how open they were because some of the public schools we’re in just want us to come and teach ‘special’ phys. ed. classes, and teach them fitness yoga. Yesterday I went into the Catholic school and the principle was doing an announcement right before the class and what he was talking about was the courage of Jesus and Martin Luther King to be non-violent. It was Ahimsa. It was great, it matched exactly what I wanted to talk to the kids about; being able to use the poses to develop courage so they could speak for themselves and not follow peer pressure

RS: It sounds like Yoga For Youth is sharing a lot more than just the physical practice of asana with these kids?

RL: Definitely, that’s what our intention is.

RS: Do you find that the kids you’re working with are receptive to the teachings? Are they more or less receptive to the asana compared to the philosophy? Where is their interest?

RL: For some of the kids something has definitely sparked, they know that the yoga practice can take them to a new place. We have some kids who are coming from lots of drug use. We have two girls who are from one of the inner city high schools who are starting to come to the studio now on their own, rather than going out and getting high… They both had serious drug use problems. A few of the kids are embracing it as a thing that has the potential to really change their lives in terms of how they behave and respond to their world. Then there’s another group that’s come in from the sports teams that are coming in to use yoga to get fit and to get them into better shape and prevent injuries. So it’s reaching the kids on different levels and I think that for the most part they’re receptive to what yoga is in its entirety, beyond just the physical practice.

RS: What is the average age of the kids that you’re teaching?

RL: Anywhere from 5 years old to 25 years old… I had a grade 2 kid the other day… I always ask the kids what they think that yoga is, and they say things like “strength” or  “peacefulness“, and one little girl put up her hand and said “Yoga is the art of relaxation.” They’re so smart!

RS: How did Yoga For Youth begin?

RL: A few years ago I was talking to the man who was my religious studies professor in college, he’s a Tibetan Buddhist who’s the head of the department for religious studies here at the university. I was telling him about my teacher Father Joe Pereira who does work with HIV and AIDS and drugs and alcohol addiction recovery in India, (The Kripa Foundation has over 50 locations worldwide. It was started by Fr. Joe and supported by Mother Theresa. Visit FR. Joe’s site here and learn more about his project here.) and I was telling my prof, Dr. Jay that I wanted to dedicate myself to serving Fr. Joe’s mission. Dr. Jay said, “Well, what experience do you have with working with drugs and alcohol?” and I said,

“None.”

“What about HIV and AIDS?”

“None.”

He said, “Well you’ve trained to be a teacher and you’re working to coach kids in basketball… Have you ever thought about serving yoga to the kids before they go through all the things like addiction and health problems and using yoga to reach them first?”

And I realized that’s where my strength was so I decided to put together this foundation. It’s been growing over the past few years, and hopefully it will continue to grow.

(Fr. Joe Pereira)

RS: Is Yoga For Youth still affiliated with Kripa and Fr. Joe?

RL: He supports it. It’s not really affiliated but he’s given me his blessing to teach as many kids and train as many teachers as I can.

RS: How many teachers do you have working with you right now?

RL: We have 8.

RS: Are they all teachers who have been your long-time students? Did you train all of them?

RL: Most of them have been my students for a long time or I’ve trained them. I want to keep it fairly consistent right now in terms of the kinds of things we’re teaching and the style of yoga.

RS: You began offering a teacher training last year, can you speak a little about it?

RL: I believe teaching yoga is something that really comes through if you have a practice. Someone who teaches, I think, really needs to have a daily practice or the integrity of the teachings doesn’t really translate. At the training we try to teach people how to practice yoga in their daily life beyond just the asana, beyond the 60 minutes or 90 minutes in a class, but in all other aspects of what they do and how they live.

This past year it was a ONE Yoga training and Yoga For Youth training, so anyone that did it could teach Yoga For Youth… In the future the training will be specific, either ONE Yoga or Yoga For Youth. Right now I’m working on our mission statement and developing an 8-week program with different sequences and a class every day with a different focus.

RS: What do you envision as the future of Yoga For Youth?

RL: We were working towards actually getting it into the provincial or at least city-wide curriculum, and I found it’s really difficult. Now we’re looking at getting it into more community type programs like after-school groups where the kids and parents can come and practice. In the inner city schools the thing is that you need to be there right after school gets out, otherwise it’s really unlikely that the kids are going to be able to find a way to come back for the group.

I would love to see it in the curriculum in Saskatoon and maybe even across Canada in different cities. I would love it if we could work with a behavioral specialist who would come in and research what the affects of yoga are on the kids. I think that if we could convince people of the value, we could make it a part of the school curriculum. Ideally I would love to see yoga be a part of every kids school day, 5 minutes of meditation and 15 minutes of poses. It would change the schools and the people completely.

RS: What is it about a yoga practice that’s different from sports or theater or other hobbies? What about yoga would help someone be more aware and more loving or encourage those traits?

RL: Yoga gives people the tools that they need to become comfortable in their own skin and to make good, conscious choices rather than following peer pressure or rather than following habitual ways or cultural standards that aren’t always kind, loving and truthful. I think that yoga helps people to connect with their personal power and their ability to love themselves and others.

Yoga also brings people to honor their bodies. In class we encourage them to come from their hearts and their feelings and intuition rather than doing poses because they’re competitive or because they think everyone else is doing it. It makes them mindful of their actions, their words, their thoughts and it empowers them to learn what they can do and what they can go through. We challenge people in yoga classes, we put them into situations on the mat that are really hard and we make them stay in it and find comfort and just breathe through it even when things get tough. I think that the longer someone can stay in a pose that’s safe, but is challenging and uncomfortable… That learning to work through their physical challenges and discomfort makes them more tolerant and loving people who are accepting of others and accepting of life.

RS: Where do you get your financial support? Do you receive any government funding through the schools?

RL: We receive individual donations and we do fundraiser/karma classes to buy mats and pay teachers.  We’re definitely on the lookout for a mat company to sponsor us if you know of any!

It’s been difficult to get funding through the schools because they have to be a bit wary of religious affiliations, or I guess, what can be seen as religious affiliation. I talked to a woman with the school board yesterday and the first thing she brought up was that some of the parents don’t like yoga being taught in schools because they think it’s religious.

RS: Other than some parents who are concerned about potential religious conflicts, how has the response been from the other parents, kids and teachers? Does it seem like there is some kind of general attitude or response to your program so far?

RL: For the most part, everyone really loves it and they appreciate it and they want more of it. The more time we spend in one school, the more the parents and the teachers see what the possible benefits of yoga are and what yoga can do for them and the kids as human beings. Beyond building strength or flexibility, the teachers notice that the kids are calmer and more focused. The teachers see them actually using some of the principles of yoga like kindness, truthfulness, and non-stealing.

RS: Can you say a little about the perception that yoga is a religion? How do you teach mindfulness and spirituality without teaching religion, or do you? Is that a part of your program?

RL: We talk about things a bit differently. We don’t talk about God but sometimes in Savasana we say things like “Let that force that is breathing you… Whatever you think it is… Let it take care of you and relax with it.” We talk about surrendering and letting to the earth and to the sky like with the native spirituality. Sometimes we use language like soul or spirit, but if we do use that language or if we talk about Jesus or the Buddha, we make sure to say that it’s just one way of describing things. We use a lot of language like joining with your highest self or conscience, and what we’re talking about is the power of love. I guess we use the word love interchangeably with god.

The inner cities have lots of Native American kids whose tradition has really been suppressed and dishonored in Canada so we often incorporate certain aspects of their tradition, like the elements, the earth, sky, fire and water into our teachings. And at the end of the class when we say Namaste we also say words from Crazy Horse, “I salute the light within your eyes where the universe dwells. For when you are at that place within you and I am at that place within me we shall be one.”

We like to honor those teachings of the Mother Earth and the Father Sky. We’re on sacred land, here on Earth, and also as our bodies and in our minds we’re sacred.

What we’re teaching is not religious. We’re not asking them to be any certain way. We’re empowering the kids to really be themselves and we’re basically teaching them that at the core of who they are, they’re no better, no worse, no different than anyone else, there’s no superiority and no inferiority. We say things like “Have a proud heart and a humble chin”. What this program is doing for these kids is uplifting the kids that really need to be uplifted who are shy, insecure and maybe unhealthy. And it’s helping to humble the kids that have learned to bully or look down on their peers. The program works to bring young people into their center where they really are perfect and there’s nothing wrong with them and there’s nothing to prove. We’re trying to teach them to connect to that part of themselves. I think that’s really the heart of what yoga is.

Click here to view the embedded video.

RS: What inspires you most, what motivates you to do what you do?

RL: Just looking in these kids eyes when they’re connecting to their source. What inspires me is these kids that are just shining and to be able to help them keep that shine and make it stronger. If we go to one school with 300 kids and 1 kid ‘gets it’. If just one kid understands the simple teachings of yoga it could have a huge impact on their whole life. If one kid came and said “Oh wow! That was really cool, maybe when I get older I’ll go and study that.” Or like a lot of these kids that we’re teaching now, maybe they’ll be inspired to become yoga teachers and teach their peers and stay on the path towards a peaceful and mindful life. I think that’s worth all of the time and effort that we put in.

RS: If you could design a t-shirt what would it say?

RL: LOVE!

But I also like Muhammad Ali’s poem that just says, “Me, We.” Because we’re all in this together, whether we like it or not or realize it or not, we’re all one, we’re all here on Earth together and we have to help each other out.

(Feed The Yogi will being selling Yoga For Youth T-shirts on the site in the next few months. Keep an eye out for them, all proceeds go to YFY)

Ryan and his lovely daughter and teaching assistant, Kiyah

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches.A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King’s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986. (wikipedia)

December 13, 2009
Interview with Ryan Patterson from Away Inward Retreats.

In the last year and a half California-based massage therapist Ryan Patterson and his Partner Jason Frahm have taken four groups to Peru for a once-in-a-lifetime cultural experience including hikes to sacred Inca ruins, fire dances, earth offerings and plant ceremonies guided by Andean Shamans, massage, journaling, yoga (of course), Machu Picchu (of course) and a deep commitment to serving 2 local orphanages. I interviewed Ryan about the vision of Away Inward and his mission of charitable outreach.

How did Away Inward begin?
Jason had been working in southeast Asia; Thailand and Bali, but he had anchored in Peru to work on his project (The At-Onement Project) bringing education to remote areas. Simultaneously I was starting Away Inward as a charitable yoga foundation, mainly doing retreats. I had just started it when I met Jason. I had the bank account and the url, the business side of the setup, but I hadn’t done retreats yet. I went on a journey with him to Peru and the retreat center we stayed at was working with an orphanage (Casa de Milagros), so we spent some time there and we were introduced to the process that they had in which profits from the retreat center funded the orphanage. During that time we also found out about another retreat center (Las Casitas del Arco Iris) which supported a different orphanage that was part of a larger initiative that also included a daycare program for young children, a technical and vocational school for children and adults, and a free medical and dental clinic for the community. We both felt pulled to help support these programs and that’s where we came together to start the retreats to Peru.

What kind of funding opportunities does Away Inward set up for these two programs? What do you do, how do you do it, how much do you give?
We start with simply asking each of the guests to bring a bag of supplies; clothes, medical supplies etc. Before the trip we each do various fundraisers, I do raffles for massage and teach donation yoga classes. We typically take down about $2500 USD at the beginning, which may sound nominal to us but is actually a good amount for them.
The way we set up the retreats, our guests know that they’re supporting the programs, they know that’s part of the reason for the trip. When we stay at the retreat center attached to Casa de Milagros we spend a good portion of our last day there with the kids at the orphanage. On our way back (from Machu Picchu) we stay at Las Casitas del Arco Iris where we do a tour and our guests get to see the facilities and see what they’re supporting. Our company gives 10% of profits back to the orphanages and at the end of the trip we open the door to guests to donate as well. We typically raise an additional 8-10,000USD from the guests per trip. (Editor’s note: 3 trips to Peru per year averages an accumulative min. total of $34,500-$37,500 per year raised for the projects)

Do most of your guests donate after?
Yes, for sure. We’ve been blessed, but as I said we build that in from the beginning. So introducing the guests to the people, showing them where the money’s going and what they’re doing with it really makes an impact.

How is that for your guests? How are they affected by these trips and the visits to the centers?
They’re tremendously moved, in the last trip we had a few guests from Italy who had been fairly sheltered from the severity of third-world poverty. When they see people who have given their entire life such as Mama Kia, (who moved from Sweden to start Casa de Milagros, or Helena Van Engelen from Holland who started Casitas del Arco Iris) who have moved to Peru with the sole purpose of taking care of the kids that are left on the streets; when our guests see how much good work is being done they’re usually moved to tears.

Why do most of your guests come? What are their motivations?
Peru. It’s the destination that they’ve always wanted, thought about, but they would never go on their own. Most of them are into yoga also. We can work on the charitable side because we have the pull of Peru and the element of Karma Yoga, or of giving back. When we first designed the retreat it actually wasn’t about getting people to donate to causes, but we knew that just by staying in the retreat centers we could help the orphanages.

Can you speak a little bit about your personal philosophy and intention behind Away Inward? What does “Away Inward” mean?
Going inward to me is the notion of connecting with intuition or what some people might call a “sixth sense”, but I just call that inner awareness. For most of us in our day-to-day lives we have so much external stimulation that we lose track of simple things like our breath, how we feel, illnesses that are going on, stuff that we should be connected to and inherently know.
So I think that sometimes we have to go away in order to reconnect to that knowing, to our ‘center’. The destination’s not really as important as the going away. Going somewhere new takes us out of our routine, takes us away from obligations, cell phones, internet. Without those things we don’t have expectations and distractions that are barriers keeping us from listening to our bodies and our inner guidance, or that inherent wisdom. So I think that’s the main philosophy; to find a way inward. That was the original idea with Away Inward, to get out of your comfort zone, out of your daily routine and check in with yourself at a higher level.

What is it about Peru that would help someone to go inward?
In Peru we spend a lot of time with Shamans. We do things like creating ceremonies to connect with Mother Earth and saying prayers. It’s simple ceremony that brings back aspects we’ve lost in our culture and daily life. But here we can reinforce that connection. It’s a bit easier in Peru because there are so many people that are still connected to the earth and earth based traditions. For westerners that whole concept is a great catalyst for introspection and an invitation to tune in to a higher potential.

Are people able to integrate these elements when they come back from the trip? Or do you always have to go away to be inward?
*Laughs* Unfortunately a big part of me believes so. I try to hold on to it when I get back but I can feel it changing day by day. It’s back to the phone calls, back to the stimulation that distracts us from our center. That’s the whole goal of yoga, or at least my yoga practice, is to stay in that center. But having to work and carrying on with the daily routines can quickly move us out of center.

How does a yoga practice fit in while you are on retreat? Is it something that you encourage people to continue with when they come back?
On the retreats we have much more time for meditation, we can do walking meditation and we do silent portions of the hikes, all with the intention of grounding and reconnecting. We offer that to guests to bring home and we encourage them specifically to develop a meditation practice that will help them to maintain the essence of what gets created on the retreat.

When I first contacted you by email you mentioned that part of the work of Away Inward was to create community. I think it’s an interesting proposition that two totally different cultures can come together and “create community” and I sometimes wonder what people really mean by that, it’s a term that’s used in many different ways. How does it happen for you, how do you go about it?
When I talk about building community by going to Peru, I’m speaking more about global community and awareness. We’re bringing different worlds together. We’re taking people that know the energy of Manhattan sky-rises and we’re bringing them to third-world poverty and dirt floors. It’s about building awareness of the larger community of Planet Earth. Our guests build community within themselves too, they bond and form relationships and afterwards when we’re back we have a community of shared experience and we can talk about it and motivate to keep working together and then everyone affects their outer circle of relationships.

What I’m hearing from you is that you’re encouraging a community that’s less something physical or spatial with borders, but rather a community of understanding or a coming together of knowledge from different cultures and exposure for people who wouldn’t otherwise be exposed.
Right, it’s exposure to knowledge with a lot of cross-polination. A lot of information we’re getting from the Shamans in Peru is similar or even the same as the information coming from the yoga practice and from the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

What is your definition of a healthy community?
A healthy community to me is a larger awareness within each individual. A healthy community is made up of individuals who have a broader sense than just how they were raised or what they know specifically.

What was your original motivation or calling to this work?
I was in Thailand and a lady I met there mentioned visiting the orphanage. It wasn’t even something that I had thought of doing, but I did and then I ended up spending the next three days there and that opened the door for me to really want to participate in an orphanage in the third world in some fashion. Eight months later I was in Peru with Jason. When we went, we knew that there was an orphanage affiliated with the retreat center but that wasn’t the original purpose of the trip. But then we got there and we realized it was the obvious thing to focus on and so it fell into place.

How long have you been teaching yoga?
2.5 years

Can you tell me what drew you to yoga as a practice and how your practice has shaped what you’ve decided to do with your work/ career?
Yoga has enhanced my compassion, and it’s definitely changed my view of people. My senses of awareness, service and gratitude have all opened up with my yoga practice. In my work as a bodyworker and massage therapist yoga has made me much more intuitive and connected to my clients. It’s given me a way to stay open and healthy.

What is your vision for the future of Away Inward?
To duplicate what we’ve done in Peru in other locations. We’re in the process of working with someone in Bali who has an orphanage and a midwife center. In the long term we want to have 3 or 4 destinations annually that are all tied in to charitable organizations.

Are these retreats accessible to people at different levels of income? Do you have a scholarship?
In the future we’d like to have a volunteer program, where we can bring people down who will work longer at the orphanages, but we don’t have that in place yet.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I don’t recall ever having a mission really, like I never thought “I want to be a fireman“. I went to college for pre-med, then I went skiing for a few years and I was on ski-patrol. I was always kind of in the field of health and healing, but as a kid I wasn’t specifically drawn to anything I can remember. Bodywork just kind of happened, a friend suggested it and I tried one day of massage school and I just knew I would do that for a while. That’s how I came to yoga, I was looking for a way to heal without putting my body through so much work.

Where do you want to be in 20, 30 or 50 years from now?
I would love to have a local studio in California and one in Boise, Idaho which is where I’m from, and one that’s abroad. I’d like to have a company that runs retreats and a sustainable retreat circuit that’s available to other teachers with similar goals.

Do you have any major influences/ inspirations?
Someone like Mother Theresa, someone that can roll up their sleeves and work without worrying about what they’re going to get back from it.

Do you have New Year’s resolutions?
I’d like to find a consistent volunteer program here in California where I can volunteer and be involved.

If you could make a bumper sticker what would it be, what’s your message?
Turn off your television. Turn on your heart.

Away Inward Retreats are one week long Cultural Immersion Retreats.
Prices range from $2300USD- $3700. Included in the cost are meals and transportation, daily yoga and meditation, mindfulness practice, 3-4 hours hiking daily led by Andean Shamans to sacred Inca sites, ceremony, massage and visits to Casa de Milagros and Casitas del Arco Iris.
Airfare is not included
The next trip scheduled is March 7-13, 2010.

For more information visit http://www.awayinward.com

Other Links:
Casa de Milagros
Casitas del Arco Iris
The At-Onement Project
Ryan Patterson’s personal website

Ryan Patterson and Jason Frahm

Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who left his home in Nepal at the age of 29 to search for the meaning of life. He came from a privileged family and had grown up sheltered from the outside world. Siddhartha was curious though and left his privilege to travel the world. As he traveled, he saw the misery of the human existence, old age, suffering and sickness. Siddhartha was profoundly affected by this suffering and chose to leave the life of privilege and seek meaning.

Siddhartha spent six years as an aesthetic and served under six teachers but did not find the answer he was looking for. He tried various disciplines such as surviving by eating only one grain of rice per day, but realized this was also not the answer. Finally he vowed to sit under the Bodhi tree until he had his answers. Sitting under the tree Siddhartha fasted and meditated for a week and on the morning of the eighth day as the morning star rose in the sky, awoke to several realizations and became enlightened and experienced Nirvana (bliss). Having done so, Siddhartha became a Buddha or “Awakened One”.

The understandings Siddhartha came to were to become the principles of Buddhism. In The Longer Discourse to Saccaka, the Buddha describes his Enlightenment in three stages:

During the first watch of the night, the Buddha discovered all of his past lives in the cycle of rebirth, realizing that he had been born and reborn countless times before.

During the second watch, the Buddha discovered the Law of Karma, and the importance of living by the Eightfold Path.

During the third watch, the Buddha discovered the Four Noble Truths, finally reaching Nirvana. In his words:

“My heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, was released from the fermentation of sensuality, released from the fermentation of becoming, released from the fermentation of ignorance. With release, there was the knowledge, ‘Released.’ I discerned that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.”

]]> http://feedtheyogi.com/archives/831/feed 0 http://feedtheyogi.com/archives/774 http://feedtheyogi.com/archives/774#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:21:05 +0000 Renee http://feedtheyogi.com/?p=774 I just found out about the PBS series that started airing this week “Secrets of Shangri-La: Quest For Sacred Caves“. Thus far I’ve only watched one of the youtube trailers, but it looks like a pretty amazing series. According to some, this corner of the Himayalas is not only the birthplace of what is now the yogic tradition, but it may also be the kingdom of Shambhala which “is a mythical kingdom hidden somewhere in Inner Asia. It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including the Kalachakra Tantra and the ancient texts of the Zhang Zhung culture which predated Tibetan Buddhism in western Tibet. The Bön scriptures speak of a closely related land called Olmolungring.

Whatever its historical basis, Shambhala gradually came to be seen as a Buddhist Pure Land, a fabulous kingdom whose reality is visionary or spiritual as much as physical or geographic. It was in this form that the Shambhala myth reached the West, where it influenced non-Buddhist as well as Buddhist spiritual seekers — and, to some extent, popular culture in general.” (Excerpt from this wiki article)

Wow. This show definitely takes precedence over Dancing With The Stars.

Variations on Surya Namaskar

Hallelujah! Amen!

140 years ago today a soul was born into the body that was known as Mahatma Gandhi:

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: महात्मा mahātmā or ‘Great Soul’, an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore), and in India also as Bapu (Gujarati: Gujarati: બાપુ, bāpu or ‘Father’). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

(excerpt from Wikipedia)

In remembrance of Gandhi and many others who have shared in his teachings of non-violence and activism let us practice on this day, and let us strive to practice every day the observances of yoga: Nonviolence and compassion, commitment to truthfulness, non-stealing, control of the senses that we may not be driven by fleeting and sensory desires, non-hoarding of wealth.

Gratitude for the gift that Gandhi gave of his life and teachings! Namasté

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

“All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

“Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

“Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.”

“I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.”

“Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.”

“Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.”

“Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

Yesterday marked 8 years since the tragedy of 9/11. I hope that we (as a world full of beings) have grown, at least in some small way, in our understanding and acceptance of other cultures and faiths. I’m not a political scientist or historian, I don’t know enough facts or statistics to speak about them with any kind of authority. In my experience as a citizen of earth it seems that there is always the element of humanity that is extreme in its identity and willing to fight, kill and destroy for that identity. Belief is such a powerful thing. When we truly believe that we ARE something, there are usually things we truly believe we ARE NOT. Surely most of our beliefs have their roots in good intentions, often those intentions are forgotten amidst the struggle to prove we are right.

It’s easy for most of us (myself included) to say this about other beings; politicians, fundamentalists, dictators, family members… But usually it’s not so easy to say these things to ourselves, to reflect on our tendencies to extremism, irrational belief, and attachment to our ideas of who we are. It’s not easy to actually observe the smallest acts of violence that we may commit on a daily basis, in effort “to prove a point”.

One of the (many) gifts of yoga as a practice is that it teaches us to find balance between extremes. As we work the balance of our bodies; leaning a little this way, a little that way; adjusting this, relaxing that; exhaling, inhaling… We learn also to work the balance of our mind. As our practice evolves we have to consistently let go of what we thought it was, and in that process re-examine who we are in relation to it.

Ultimately, hopefully, we learn to do this with other beings and the world in general by developing the capacity to examine and observe our tendencies to identify either in relation or in opposition to “the other”. Developing this capacity to observe, we will eventually develop the capacity to discern, and choose our actions accordingly without acting in blind faith as a slave to our ideas of “who we are”.

Richard Freeman says, “When two things meet it’s right there at their conjunction that yoga occurs; when day meets night, when inhale meets exhale. In that initial communication, in that process, each system has to get off of its identifications, off if its baggage, off of its techniques… All those temporary things, those limited things it has identified its essence with. It has to drop back to its true nature in order to experience the other. Through connection or through yoga (union) with the other, we find ourselves.”

As we commemorate an event that was born from and bred further extremism and violent identification, lets find our own revolutionary act in observing and changing these tendencies in ourselves. From one to all, all is one.

Here are a few more thoughts worth pondering in the quiet of your soul today.

“Lord make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness; joy.” – St. Francis of Assisi

“Be not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:21

“The seed of God is in us. If the seed had a good, wise and industrious cultivator, it would grow up to God whose seed it is, and the fruit would be equal to the nature of God. Now the seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree, a hazel seed into a hazel tree, and the seed of God into God.” – Meister Eckhart

“Conquer the angry man by love. Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the miser with generosity. Conquer the liar with truth.” – The Dhammapada

“Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Mark 12:29

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely be it. I died as a mineral and became a plant; I died as a plant and rose to animal; I died as animal and was a man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as man and soar with angels blest. But even if an angel I must pass on: all except God perish. When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become what no mind has concieved.” – Rumi

“When one looks past our human skin we find the essence of God that dwells within.” – Anonymous

Wow, I’m slow on the uptake for this one. This site started in 2004 and I just now found it, just now! But wow am I glad that I did! Guerrilla Gardeners are the superheros I’ve been waiting for, and a total superhero kind of club that I can join (for once). The author of this site is in the UK, but the movement is spreading at the speed of light (that’s how quickly plants grow… did ya know?). The site offers all kinds of tips and ideas for inspired urban (or suburban) growing projects. For those who prefer fly-by-plantings you might consider crafting a seed bomb arsenal, and for those who harbor secret (or not so secret) 007 gadget-envy,  check out the GG secret gardener his and hers attaché cases featured now on the blog. They even have their own TV show! Sheesh, get your costume already. Let’s get planting!!!!!!

The Waterpod is a project conceived and founded by artist, photographer Mary Mattingly. The 3,000-square-foot commercial barge turned intentional community has been floating around New York City (currently docked at Staten Island) since June. The Waterpod was envisioned as a self-sustaining living space that might be recreated in the future to address issues of land and resource scarcity. Its systems run on solar power, it has deck-top gardens to grow its own veggies, houses hens for eggs, collects rainwater to recycle and has a dry-composting toilet.

The pod was originally intended as more of an artist’s residence, or a residence for people to stay in while making art… Turns out that self-sufficiency is a lot of work, “There’s a never-ending list of things to do: It’s a ship. It’s a farm. It’s an art residence. It’s an installation,” says Mattingly who along with Alison Ward is one of the only two permanent residents of the Waterpod, (both gave up their apartments in June to move in) but there is a constantly rotating crew of artists, gardeners, handy-people, explorers and activists who come and go for briefer stays.

The Waterpod quotes a passage from Ulysses as its manifesto, an epic has surely begun.

I’ve had the window for The Chez Panisse Foundation open on my browser for over two weeks now. I keep meaning to post about their projects, but I keep getting sidetracked reading Alice Waters’ cookbook The Art Of Simple Food (and I’m totally distracted by the sunny summer days outside the window and the simple food galore that’s coming out of our garden). Finally today, enough is enough. The Chez Panisse Foundation is a non-profit organization created in 1996 in Berkeley, California in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Chez Panisse Restaurant.

The founder of both the restaurant and the foundation, chef and author Alice Waters, has been a pioneer in the Slow Food movement, and has always maintained a commitment to using local and sustainably farmed food and supporting independent, organic and fair farming practices. In many ways Alice Waters has effectively shaped the food and farming community from her base in Berkley outwards to what is now an international movement that is gaining momentum daily. Her perseverance to her craft (“gourmet” cuisine) and dedication to her community’s health and well-being through food has led the way for countless community gardens, farm-to-table initiatives, Slow Foods chapters, and CSA’s to form and flourish nation-wide.

The Edible Schoolyard (ESY), established in 1995, (a program of the Chez Panisse Foundation) is a one-acre garden and kitchen classroom at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California.

“The garden started as a cover crop in a vacant lot with once-monthly student participation. More than a decade later, it is a thriving acre of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. Now, each student at King Middle School attends 12 to 30 sessions in ESY kitchen and garden classrooms, depending on grade level. ESY reaches each of the nearly 1,000 students at King Middle School.

The visibility of ESY has also increased. The program hosts over 1,000 visitors each year—from educators, to health professionals, to international delegates—and has inspired countless kitchen and garden programs. In 2005, ESY launched the first affiliate program in New Orleans, Louisiana. Today, there is a small network of Edible Schoolyard affiliate programs in cities across the country.” -excerpt

Awareness of food, nutrition and ecosystems can be learned at any point in life, but developing sensitivity and understanding of one’s own body as relates to the body of the earth and learning that to take care of one is to take care of the other is best learned at a young age. ESY provides an opportunity to cultivate this awareness at an early age for youngsters who may not otherwise have a strong connection to nature, and in doing so these kids will grow up with the seeds of mindfulness already planted and hopefully continue this good work (and good eating) for the rest of their lives.

What a great idea! In March 2007 Viral and Pavi Mehta had the brilliance (and graciousness) to open the Karma Kitchen which is based on a “Pay-It-Forward”  philosophy of gifting to strangers (or new friends that you just haven’t met yet). So imagine… you walk into this lovely little restaurant that feels more like home than a business and you eat a delicious meal that has been made from fresh ingredients by volunteers who LOVE the service that they are performing and when you are full and content you get a note that says, “The food is offered on a pay-it-forward basis. Your meal is paid for by someone before you and you pay forward for those after you.” Really puts a whole new spin on the idea of a food chain… Start a karmic kitchen in your town!

Read Piero’s story and get all teary eyed.

In 1993, Growing Power was an organization with teens who needed a place to work.

Will Allen was a farmer with land.

Will designed a program that offered teens an opportunity to work at his store and renovate the greenhouses to grow food for their community. What started as a simple partnership to change the landscape of the north side of Milwaukee has blossomed into a national and global commitment to sustainable food systems.

Since its inception, Growing Power has served as a ”living museum” or “idea factory” for the young, the elderly, farmers, producers, and other professionals ranging from USDA personnel to urban planners. Training areas include the following: acid-digestion, anaerobic digestion for food waste, bio-phyto remediation and soil health, aquaculture closed-loop systems, vermiculture, small and large scale composting, urban agriculture, perma-culture, food distribution, marketing, value-added product development, youth development, community engagement, participatory leadership development, and project planning.*

Read the recent article about Will in The New York Times

*(Text excerpted from site)

The Dalai Lama—a living member of the ahimsa/non-violence lineage that includes Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, MLK Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela and many others, was born 74 years ago today. He’s worked hard and long for world peace under near hopeless conditions—let’s thank this living legend by taking a moment, today, to appreciate his smiling, truly humble leadership.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The Dalai Lama is 74 today, and hundreds of his followers in exile with him in India celebrated in New Delhi and Dharmsala, where he’s lived the past 50 years. The Dalai Lama joked that so many people are praying for him that he may live to at least 100.

This beautiful and eloquent Long Life Prayer for Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama, may be recited on his Birthday—July 6, 2009—or any other auspicious time.

OM SVASTI

To the assembly of most kind teachers, both present and past -
the miraculous dance of the body, speech and mind of innumerable Buddhas
manifesting in accord with aspirants’ spiritual capacities,
the wish-granting jewel, the source of all virtue and goodness -
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.

To the assembly of all meditational deities
manifesting as countless mandalas and divinities -
the magical clouds of immaculate, transcendent wisdom
reaching to the farthest expanse of the space of ultimate reality -
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.

To all the victorious Buddhas of the three times
endowed with ten powers and who are even masters of the gods,
and whose attributes of perfection are the source of all compassionate deeds
benefiting the vast ocean-like realm of sentient beings,
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.

To the assembly of sacred doctrine embodied in the Three Vehicles,
supremely serene, a jewel-treasure of enlightenment,
stainless, unchanging, eternally good, and the glory of all virtues,
which actually liberates beings from the sufferings of the three worlds,
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.

To all members of the enlightening, noble spiritual community,
who never stray from the thoroughly liberating adamantine city,
who possess the wisdom eye that directly sees the profound truth
and the highest valour to destroy all machinations of cyclic existence,
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.

To the assembly of heroes and dakinis, heavenly beings of the three worlds,
who appear in the highest paradises, in the sacred places, and in the
cremation grounds, and who, through creative play in the hundred-fold
experiences of bliss and emptiness, support practitioners in their
meditation on the excellent path, to you, we offer our prayers
with fervent devotion:

That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.

To the ocean of protectors endowed with eyes of transcendent wisdom -
the powerful guardians and upholders of the teaching
who wear inseparably on their matted locks
the knot symbolising their pledge to the Vajra Holder -
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons. Shower on him your blessings
so that his aspirations are fulfilled without hindrance.

Thus to this congregation of excellent, undeceiving refuge,
we pray that by the power of this prayer
expressed from a heart filled with fervent devotion and humility,
may the body, speech and mind of the sole of the Land of Snows,
the supreme Ngawang Lobsang Tenzin Gyatso,
be indestructible, unfluctuating and unceasing;
may he live immutable for a hundred aeons,
seated on a diamond throne, transcending decay and destruction.

You are the jewel-heart embodying all compassionate, beneficial deeds;
O most courageous one, you carry upon your shoulders
the burden of all the Buddhas of the infinite realms.
May all your noble aspirations be fulfilled as intended.

By virtue of this may the heavenly doors of the fortunate era open
eternally as a source of relief and respite for all beings;
And may the auspicious signs reach the apex of existence and release,
as the sacred teachings flourish through all times and in all realms.

May the nectar-stream of the blessings of the Lotus Holder
always enter our hearts and nourish it with strength.
May we please you with our offerings of dedicated practice,
And may we reach beyond the shores of perfect, compassionate deeds.

Through the blessings of the wondrous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
by the infallible truth of the laws of dependent origination,
and by the purity of our fervent aspirations,
may the aims of my prayer be fulfilled without hindrance.

Sarva Mangalm!

A short film by Christine Rabette. Pass it on.

Merci!

Gerhard Joren‘s photos deal with life, culture and politics in Asia addressing some fairly “sensitive” themes without romanticizing or becoming didactic. The bio link on his site doesn’t seem to be working right now but I’ll keep checking back for more info on this very interesting photographer. Check out his Urban Yoga album and refer back to the the “flash gatherings” post and get some ideas in your head ; )