Today marks sixmonths of daily blogs and I’m celebrating in two ways:
First, I’m giving myself a major pat on the back for having stuck it out and made it this far.
And second, I’m stretching even further out of my comfort zone by inviting readers to follow the blog, which means they can choose to receive an email notification of each published blog post (this will allow me to stop clogging up our Ananda Village “Nextdoor” site with my daily posting announcements, though I’ll still post a link to Facebook each day).
For sure there’s plenty of inner resistance as I take this step, but I also feel Swami urging me to ignore the resistance and simply keep moving forward. So that’s what I’m doing!
Here’s to the next six months!
P.S. You’ll find the “Follow my blog” form in the sidebar. š
That’s Manisha on the left, with friend, Jujuolui, and husband, Dambara.
I love whatever my friend, Manisha, writes. So I’m thrilled that my fellow Ananda blogger, William, and I have somehow managed to cajole her into writing a regular blog once again.
I’m ready to hop on a plane for another visit to beautiful Ananda Farm Camano Island.
I’m inspired to try her suggestion of starting my day off by writing in a gratitude journal, in order to “prime the pump” and start my day with more joy.
Thanks, Manisha. I’m looking forward to more; much more! š
In my jazz days, I had heard of tenor saxophonist, Sonny Rollins, but — being more of an alto sax girl (Paul Desmond of the Dave Brubeck quartet was my hero!) — I never really tuned into him.
So I was fascinated to learn recently that Rollins — now in his late 80’s — has been practicing yoga and meditation since the mid-1960’s, even taking a sabbatical from performing in order to spend an extended period at an ashram in India!
Here at Ananda, we seek to offer ourselves and all we do in service to God and Gurus; as musician devotees we ask to serve as channels for their inspiration, doing our best to stay out of the way while trying to always remember that “God is the doer”.
Which is almost exactly how Sonny Rollins describes his approach as an improviser: “I’m not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I’m just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The music is supposed to be coming through me; that’s when it’s really happening.”
One of our Ananda friends, William Breckenridge, has just launched a brand new blog called Gioia Journal and I’m actually surprised at how tickled this makes me! I guess the fact that I’m so pleased for him, and so eager to read what he has to say, is because I’ve been getting so much value from the writing process.
Here’s part of what William has to say about his new endeavor: “I am choosing to blog about my joys, experiences, and adventures here atĀ Ananda Farm Camano Island. It has positively influenced the way I feel, think, act, and live. I may have some original insights; they are yours to peruse and hopefully enjoy.”
All the best to you, William! I hope you experience as much joy and satisfaction from writing your blog as I have.
Tonight we helped celebrate the rebirth of Master’s Market — officially closed exactly three months ago and now re-opened as a co-op (on a three month trial basis) thanks to the efforts of Omprakash and his amazing team of volunteers.
There was food on the shelves; the high school girls were offering baked goodies for sale; pizza night was booming; Ashtara and Arya were selling their delicious sourdough bread; and the fiddle band kept lots of toes tapping. Bottom line? The energy was amazing!
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” –Albert Camus
It’s been quite a while since we had rain, and it feels like we’re getting to admire the autumn foliage for much longer than usual. Now, I’m no scientist or botanist, and I know next to nothing about photosynthesis or chlorophyll. Which means I get to make up my own story about fall foliage and what it means (to me, at least). š
It seems to me that the leaves absorb light throughout the spring and summer, then start losing it as they gradually diminish in the early fall and begin changing colors. But as the season continues, with the days growing shorter and winter drawing near, it’s as if nature gives us one last show…a final display of vibrant light and a sense of warmth. I’m sure you’ve experienced it: when you’re walking or driving along and you suddenly see a burst of light through the trees…and you realize it’s the fall foliage, glowing as if lit from within.
Sometimes I have to just stop and marvel at the incredible light emanating from the trees here at Ananda Village. They are so very, very beautiful! And I like the idea of each leaf going out in a burst of glory, as the spirit of the tree quietly turns within and prepares to enter the stillness of winter.
Ramesha got home from teaching a class to the Yoga Teacher Training group and we got to chatting and laughing…and I ended up missing my deadline to write the blog!
Oh well, relaxing in the evening with the hubby is a good thing. š
Today I just have to give a HUGE shout out to my husband, Ramesha! He has been putting out an amazing amount of time and energy and resources, which — of course! — means that he’s also facing down those inner parts of himself that want to hold him back. The letter below is the first time he’s really shared with our spiritual family what he’s been up to. I’m making it the basis of today’s blog because I am so very proud of him, so appreciative of all his hard work, and I want to do anything and everything I can to support him in his endeavors. Thanks!
Dear Ananda family,
I’d like to share with you about a project that I’ve been working very hard on for the last few months.
As you already know, for years we in the music ministry have been trying to find ways to āget the music out thereā (as Swamiji would say), by sharing our music with a wider audience than just Ananda members.Ā
We all love our music and we are constantly nurtured by it. But there are thousands, maybe even millions of people out there who would probably love it as much as we do, if only they had a chance to LEARN about it!
So, this is what I’ve been focusing on: letting (a lot) more people know about Ananda Music by putting it in front of them right where they like to hang out most: on social media.
I’ve been working closely with an amazing group of musicians and music marketers who are teaching, from direct personal experience, what works in terms of promoting music online. The possibilities are mind boggling!
A key point they emphasize is that to successfully promote music (or anything else), you have to create a culture, a brand, a sense of COMMUNITY that is oriented around the music you promote. However, Iām also learning that it’s a lot more effective to promote music as an individual, rather than as an organization. People (potential āfansā) are used to relating to an individual, like a singer or instrumentalist, rather than to an entity such as “Ananda Music.” Of course, this approach feels dramatically different to me as a devotee, but Iām committed to following the program, so…! š
Another benefit of promoting myself as an individual is that it allows me to more easily reach out to those who arenāt ready to embrace a spiritual path, but are hungry for inspiration and connection. Similarly to what Jyotish and Devi are doing with the Yogananda Institute in India, Iāll be presenting our music to the world without placing emphasis on a path, religion, or affiliation, but simply as a tool to inspire and uplift, from musician to listener.
And, of course, a huge plus of building my business in this way is the potential to substantially increase my income–both personally and eventually for the music ministry–while still allowing me to operate within the dharma of promoting and performing the music of Master and Swamiji.Ā Ā Ā
And now, friends, I have two favors to ask of you:Ā Ā First, Iām hoping you will feel inspired to visit and consider joining my Live Happy! Facebook group.This is where I’m creating the culture and sense of community that I was talking about earlier, and it would be great to have inspiring souls, like yourselves, chiming in by posting uplifting items and sharing insights that may be of interest to spiritually-inclined people, without being specifically “Ananda”.
Finally, please hold this project in your prayers. I feel it has the potential to make our music known to many thirsty souls.Ā
I really love this photo, which appeared on the Ananda Worldwide Facebook page the other day. For one thing, the photographer beautifully captured the deep devotion of these great souls, each of whom I happen to know and love.
It also strikes me as both sweet and powerful to realize just how much of the world is represented in this photo, as these individuals are from New Zealand, the United States, and India.
And that got me to thinking (not for the first time!) of just how international my spiritual family is! At Ananda Village alone we have members who are originally from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, England, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Laos, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. And that’s just off the top of my head, so I may have missed somebody.
But it’s not just that our community is filled with a wide diversity of people from so many points of the globe. It’s that all these people are dedicated to a spiritual lifestyle based on joy and harmony, consciouslychoosinga life lived for God. It’s amazing, really!
A song from my adolescence has been popping into my mind quite a bit over the past few weeks: Ball of Confusion by the Temptations.
The lyrics that have stayed in my mind since high school are: Fear in the air, tension ev’rywhere Unemployment rising fast, the Beatle’s new record’s a gas, and the only safe place to live is on an Indian reservation, and the band played on. Eve of destruction, tax deduction, City inspectors, bill collectors, mod clothes in demand, population out of hand, suicide, too many bills, hippies movin’ to the hills People all over the world are shouting end the war and the band played on.
I loved the Temptations when I was growing up and this song really made an impact on me as an angst-filled teenager learning to deal with the crazy world I was living in. Of course, the vibration of the song is pretty much the opposite of Ananda’s music; Ball of Confusion perfectly captures the agitation of modern life, and the musician in me admires the skill with which they did it!
So I find myself thinking about how crazy the world seems now…and then I think about how crazy the world seemed then (after all, this song came out almost fifty years ago!). And I think again about the article by Swami Kriyananda that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, especially the following excerpt:
CAN THE WORLD BE PERFECTED? The thought that this world can ever be perfected is one of manās greatest delusions. What this world is, simply, is a school, through which the soul passes on its upward evolution. Perfection is, in other words, an ideal to be sought for the benefit of the students, not of the school. Were this school, our earth, to complete its educative purpose, by means at present unimaginable, it would mean simply that souls still in need of its instruction would have to be enrolled elsewhere. No outward improvement in the world will ever guarantee a corresponding improvement of the individual. Ultimately, manās betterment depends always on his own recognition of his need for it.
I donāt say, never try to improve things. Do improve them if you can, always calmly and in support of the good, never with anger. But realize that there are simply too many wrongs in the world for all of them to be improved very much. Your first need, always, is to remain calm and undisturbed in your Self.
Sure, the world is a ball of confusion; but that doesn’t have to be our reality. We can attune ourselves to higher consciousness and live in peace and love and clarity.
