good blogs and good laughs

by L. Valdez Karl

Taking a break from writing about serious things, I want to highlight some good stuff I’ve read lately:

Flower Girl’s Rural India
Flower Girl’s blog is “all about Indian culture and customs, religion and rituals”. Her latest post is about the boat races in Kerala. Kerala is a state in India that’s on the Arabian Sea completely on the opposite side of south India from where I always go, and where I will spend 5 days in January doing yoga, getting ayurvedic massages, and hopefully ride an elephant!

Flower Girl also has her other blogs linked to this one, one of which is a blog with all types of Indian food recipes, some of which are to die for!

India Outside My Window is all about “the colors, sights, and sounds of South India.” What is nice about this blog is that there are sound clips where you can listen to the sounds of India. The one clip I listened to was the train — I closed my eyes and listened and it took me back to my train ride from Rameswaram to Chennai, when we stopped in the stations and I heard the chai and food vendors calling out what they had for sale.

Shirley Two Feathers’ blog Mandala Madness is “an eclectic mixture of mandala art, poetry, and inspirational quotes to expand, enrich, and enliven your experience in the now moment.”

Images like this one can be downloaded to use as your computer’s wallpaper and you can also buy mandala prints.

I’ve written before about Scott Carney’s blog “Trailing Technology” (see blog links in the sidebar) and his latest post is about singing. In that post you’ll find this link to his story on NPR radio: A culture of song in India’s Tamil Nadu.

Scott says, “I love the radio in Chennai. When I’m driving around the city I always tune into FM rainbow and listen to a daily game show called Aantakshri. The game is really simple. One caller starts singing a few bars of a song. They stop and then repeat the last sound from the last line of the song. The second caller starts singing some other song that starts with that last sound. It’s sort of like musical chairs, but with singing.”

It’s very true that if you stop and listen hard enough, you’ll hear someone’s voice singing somewhere amongst the cacophony of the dogs barking, the car horns blaring, and the temple music on the Chennai streets.

Home is where the heart is and my heart is in India.

If you like MadTV watch this episode . Michael McDonald’s character, the rotund and always hilarious, Marvin Tikva, takes a yoga class. I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair.

For those of you who know The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, this video needs no explanation. Jamie plays a substitute yoga teacher and most of the students in the class get “X-ed” — watch the expressions on the students’ faces!

Finally, scroll all the way to the bottom of this blog and you’ll see my Meez 3D ID. It’s not animated here, but if you want your own little animated version of you — and who wouldn’t? — click on the link and get your own. It’s free and enter my code “lindias” so we both can get some “coinz”.

Enjoy!

the countdown begins

by L. Valdez Karl

China Tightens Control of Tibetans

“BEIJING (Reuters) – Reincarnations of “living Buddhas” in Tibet which fail to get Chinese government approval are illegal and invalid, China has announced as it tightens control of a region still deemed loyal to the Dalai Lama.

The regulations coincide with reports from an ethnically Tibetan region of the southwestern province of Sichuan that dozens of people had been arrested for using a traditional festival to call for the return of their exiled spiritual leader.

Critics say China continues to repress Tibetans’ religious aspirations, especially their veneration for the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whom China denounces as a “separatist”.

But the Dalai Lama is already 72 and some have accused China of delaying holding talks with him, waiting for him to die when they would name a new Dalai Lama of their own, loyal to Beijing….”

Tibetans hold massive rally to shame Olympics host China

“NEW DELHI, Aug 8: Thousands of Tibetans marched through New Delhi on Wednesday, shouting slogans and waving flags in protest against China’s actions in Tibet at the start of the one-year countdown to the Beijing Olympics.

In one of the biggest rallies by Tibetans in India, about 10,000 Tibetans, including maroon-robed Buddhist monks and women in traditional costumes, bellowed their demands, asking China to prove it was upholding the rights of people living in Tibet.

“The essence of the Olympics is equality, but we do not have equality in Tibet,” said Kalsang Godrukpa, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, the main organiser of the rally.

“China doesn’t deserve the Olympics until Tibet is free,” he told reporters, as protesters marched by wearing yellow baseball caps and waving Tibetan flags and giant posters of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader…”

The Dalai Lama calls on Tibetans to end hunger strike: Day 31

“New Delhi, August 7: In a letter (Original in Tibetan) addressed to “the Fourteen patriotic and courageous Tibetans on hunger strike and the organizers” Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has today called on them to discontinue with the Indefinite Hunger Strike going on in New Delhi.

Mr Tempa Tsering, Kalon for Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration today visited the indefinite hunger strikers to convey His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s appeal to immediately end their strike.

14 Tibetans have been on Tibetan Youth Congress led Indefinite Hunger Strike in Jantar Mantar, New Delhi since July 8. Today is their 31st day and are demanding direct response from China for violating the rights of Tibetan people in Tibet…”

The Chinese government does not allow its citizens to access websites that have any references to freedom for Tibet. The number of my readers from China stopped at 30 a long time ago.

Either billions of Chinese think my rants and musings are totally worthless, or it looks like I’ve been banned in China.

BOYCOTT THE 2008 OLYMPICS IN BEIJING

FREE TIBET

FREE THE PANCHEN LAMA

the color of yoga

by L. Valdez Karl

I’m throwing the question out there: why is western yoga so overwhelmingly white?

In my six years of teaching (and longer as a student) I’ve been to numerous yoga workshops, trainings, and conferences, and I can’t help but notice the dearth of people of color at these events.

This topic is one of my yoga rants, together with ageism in yoga marketing in this country, but you don’t see these topics discussed in Yoga Journal — and that also bugs me.

As for black yogis, I know of Rolf Gates, Alice Walker, Becky Love, a Chicago yoga teacher, and Ty Powers. There is also the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers whose mission is “to serve the African Diaspora by spreading the teachings of the ancient art and science of yoga.” As for black yoga students, I can count on one hand how many I’ve had. One of the places I teach is a community college with many African-American and Hispanic students, but in my four years there, the majority of my students are white.

Even when I go into Chicago to my teacher’s studio to take his classes, a studio that is in a hip, diverse area, the majority of students are white.

I teach karma yoga at a domestic violence shelter to the Hispanic Women’s Support Group. These women love the time they have for themselves. They love having the opportunity to meditate in a quiet place, an opportunity they usually don’t have at home with kids and with men who don’t support them emotionally.

Once a newspaper reporter interviewed me and some of the shelter’s students about yoga for battered women, and one woman said she would love to see more yoga offered in their community, but she felt that many Hispanics might not be receptive to it, mainly because of their religions (Baptist, Catholic, and Jehovah’s Witness in my area.) One woman stopped coming to my class because her minister – a Jehovah’s Witness — told her that yoga was evil and she would go to hell if she kept doing yoga. The group leader told me this and she said that the woman felt badly about it because she loved the way yoga made her feel, but she felt she had to listen to her minister over and above what she felt inside her.

I know that the cost of attending yoga classes can be prohibitive for people in lower-income areas. When one has to pay the rent, buy food, pay the utility bills, and buy clothes for the kids, yoga classes are a luxury even when offered at less expensive venues such as park districts or community centers. Are people of color in higher income brackets doing yoga or going on meditation retreats? It seems to me that people in lower-income areas — black, brown, or white — should have the same access to alternative healing modalities such as yoga, acupuncture, massage, reiki, and meditation that my white upper middle class students have. Local area yoga teachers and other healers could offer these modalities through seva service.

But as for the yoga business itself in the west, and the population of yoga teachers in the United States, how culturally diverse is it…really? Again, what about the way yoga is marketed in the west, how “colorful” are the ads in yoga magazines? Is yoga marketed predominately to the white community? If that’s the game plan of advertisers, why? Is it solely about economics and demographics?

Or is yoga just a white thang?

It all makes me go…hmmmmmmm…….

may all beings be free from suffering

by L. Valdez Karl

Many of you already know about Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback who’s been accused of running a dog-fighting operation out of his Bad Newz Kennels (I guess he can throw a football but he can’t spell.) Here’s a dude making a gazillion dollars playing football and the knucklehead thinks he’s a big bad thug in the ‘hood. And if the dog-fighting isn’t bad enough, he’s charged with other counts of animal abuse because he killed the dogs that did not perform to his standards by hanging, beating, or electrocuting them. These are the sports role models that kids have to look up to today. Athletes like Walter Payton are probably rolling in their graves. By the way, the above picture is NOT Michael Vick — Russell Simmons is a hip-hop record producer AND a yogi.

Yeah, yeah, I know that everyone is “innocent” until proven guilty, but as Vanessa writes about Michael Vick here and here, Vick’s co-defendant is singing like a canary and unless the ghost of Johnny Cochran appears, Vick is history just like his dogs.

As a Buddhist I believe in karma, cause and effect, what goes around comes around. And I’m thinking that when Vick goes to that football stadium in the sky, he’s coming back as a pit bull or one of the small animals like a cat or rabbit — sometimes stolen, but also procured from those “free to a good home” ads — that those oh so macho guys throw in the ring to give their dogs a taste of blood. There is a special place in the hell realms for Vick and others like him.

As much as Michael Vick’s actions sicken me, I also feel sorry for him, believe it or not. I am an animal lover to the core, and Gandhi said that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” When I hear about animal abuse or child abuse or abuse of any kind, I wonder what was so lacking in someone’s life that they have no hesitation whatsoever to inflict such suffering on another living thing. I wonder how someone can be so completely shut down that they don’t even realize what they are doing, especially ultimately to themselves.

I want Vick prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but man, what is it that makes him think that there is nothing wrong in what he did? What is in the deepest recess of his soul that takes pleasure in watching dogs tear each other apart and then think nothing of hanging the loser? I read that Vick was the “big money man” at the dog fights and would bet thousands of dollars on his dogs…so was it greed? Buddha said that all the misery in the world is caused by three things: attachment, aversion, and ignorance.

Many people suffer at the hands of their abusers but do not become abusers themselves. Many people grow up amidst violence but somehow rise above it to have peaceful hearts. Why is it one way for some and not for others? Karma…and choices.

During a dharma reading to my yoga class this morning, I thought about Michael Vick. The Buddhist writer wrote that if we look beneath the surface deeply enough, we begin to realize that everyone wants the same thing: that everyone, no matter who they are, wishes for happiness and freedom from suffering. I’ve heard the Dalai Lama say that true compassion is seeing everyone as ourselves and seeing ourselves in other people.

I believe that every human heart is capable of the Four Immeasurables — love, compassion, joy, and equanimity — sigh…even people like Michael Vick. If I did not believe it, I would not be a Buddhist.

Maybe Michael Vick should be sentenced to do some community service with Little Lotus Hearts. Little Lotus Hearts provides services to people who have a deep love and respect for animals. As Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, the founders believe in the Buddhist teaching that all sentient beings are equal, in that they all wish for happiness and the avoidance of suffering.

Might be a good place for him to start practicing compassion and ahimsa. Once he gets out of jail.

free your mind for change

by L. Valdez Karl

Change is good.

Every few years or so I get into a frenzy about changing things inside my house — new furniture or changing the old furniture around, painting a light colored room something dark and rich. Of course, “change” is much more involved than just changing your furniture. Personal change, personal transformation, is much more important.

I found this while surfing around and fell in love with these words:

“Join forces with the dynamic flow of life. The African-American theologian Howard Thurman said: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.'”

mmmmmm….that really resonates with me….”what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

But to initiate change, you must free your mind, you must be open to change, whether it’s a bold new color for your bathroom or a bold new color for your soul. Maybe you’ve longed for years to take that initial step outside the life you’ve been living; maybe you’re tired of living someone else’s life and not your own. Maybe you know deep in your spirit that it’s finally time to speak your truth, to finally open that throat chakra. What are you waiting for?

I’ve written before that I get my own personal messages from The Universe (insert wink-wink emoticon here.) Some are fun, some make me go hmmmmmmm….. One from this week reads:

“Live your dreams now to any degree that you can. With every purchase. Every decision. Every hello and goodbye. Every assignment. Every conversation. Every meal. Every morning, afternoon, and evening. And never, ever, ever look back.

Reframe every thought, word, and deed from the perspective of the person you’ve always dreamed you’d be, as if your life was already as you’ve always dreamed it would be. Die to yesterday’s illusions and be reborn to the truth of your vision….”

As En Vogue sang, “free your mind and the rest will follow, be color blind, don’t be so shallow…” They were singing about race and prejudice, but the “free your mind” mantra applies to life in general.

But I’ll let the original Funky Divas kickstart your change…give a listen and give it up…open your heart and free your mind…

Kick it, ladies…

"pretty sky"

by L. Valdez Karl


I agree with my gal pal in India, Sirensongs, that Arabic is one of the most visually beautiful written languages in the world. It was her latest post that turned me on to Reem’s blog, My Name in Arabic.

Reem was kind enough to translate both my names into Arabic. The first image is Sama which is my Buddhist name. Sama is the same in Sanskrit or Pali, meaning “harmony” or “equanimity”. The second image is Linda which is a Spanish word for “pretty”.

Reem wrote me that Sama sounds like the Arabic word for “sky”. I like that — very much. It reminds me of the title of a Buddhism book, Losing the Clouds, Gaining the Sky….which is what happens when we meditate and still the fluctuations of the mind. We lose the clouds (thoughts) and gain the expansiveness of the open and aware mind (the sky.)

Another fine example of the beauty of Arabic script is Scott’s tattoo pictured in his blog post The Writing on My Arm. Scott is an another American ex-pat living in Chennai. You can check out his excellent blog, Trailing Technology, in the side bar listed under Cyberpals. He might have a little trouble going through security now at U.S. airports, but what the hell, it’s a cool tattoo.

If you would like your name translated into beautiful Arabic script, email Reem.

Salaam aleikum

Shanti

Peace

"the illusion of when"

by L. Valdez Karl


The Illusion of When
by Sarah Militz-Frielink

“The people in the West are always getting ready to live.” This Chinese proverb describes our dependence on the illusion of when. We often think about when as a soothing comfort out of the present moment. We ruminate in when thoughts to deal with our vulnerability to the changes in life. We might think that when we take a vacation, then will we will relax, or when we retire, then we can travel around the world. We also might dwell on whens about our government (my personal favorite): when we elect a new president, then our country’s problems will disappear. We focus on getting ready for some future moment and lose the present one. The illusion of when has stumped the human race for centuries, particularly those who live in the West.

This illusion is one I have wrestled with my entire life. Although I know the truth about this illusion, I still struggle with it. My childhood was full of when thoughts. These thoughts consumed me as I allowed them to rule my life. When I finish college… When I publish this…When I get married…When I have children…The truth is after I accomplished all the whens I never felt satisfied. The same empty feeling engulfed me because I just focused on the next when.

The illusion of when manifests from the most simplistic everyday thoughts such as “when I get out of this traffic jam,” to the more superficial thoughts such as “when I buy a new pair of shoes.” All these whens just take us out of the present moment and into the land of avoidance. Do we notice the songs the birds sing or experience the beauty of nature when we hide in this illusion? Do we listen to our family while we brood in our thoughts of when? No! We are not really living. We must live in the now and dissolve the illusion of when.

How can we dissolve the illusion of when? We must stop living in our thoughts and connect with our body and our spirit within. Yoga is one way to help us connect deeply to our body, our spirit and the present. My yin yoga teacher Linda often shares these wise words after a pose, “Just feel what you feel without judgment or attachment.”

We must also learn the act of surrender. Instead of dwelling on when an uncomfortable situation will end, such as a traffic jam, we must let go of our deliberations. We must try to live as the observer without an opinion about our situation. We must also let go of our attachment to the desired outcome—such as a new president or a dream vacation. Then we are free to go within, in the stillness of our divine self.

Even in the midst of a chaos, we have our five senses. If we focus on each breath in and out, we can stay in the present. If we focus on the gentle caress of the wind, the feelings and sensations of our everyday routines, we can center ourselves. Most importantly, we must remember to stay conscious of our breath. Each conscious breath ends our mind chatter and our constant thoughts about when. Each conscious moment allows us to take in the beauty of the present. In these moments, we are awake.

I have made an intentional effort to live in the present for the past four years—-ever since I found Eckhart Tolle’s inspirational book, The Power of Now. Living in the present is a challenge at times. Most moments I wrestle with when. I still trick myself into believing the illusion of when. However, there are beautiful moments I stay present and experience joyous laughter with my children or the splendor of a sunset. There are times I stay present and feel every sensation while I wash the dishes. There are traffic jams I surrender to and stay in the present. These are the precious moments of the now; the only thing I am. The only thing we are. We are the now. Our mind is not us. It is merely a tool. Our true self transcends all thoughts and welcomes every moment without judgment. Let us live in the now and embrace our true self within—-free from the illusion of when. Let us begin this, now.

********************************************************************

Sarah is my yoga student and she wrote this for the local new-age magazine The Monthly Aspectarian. Unfortunately their website has not been updated since 2005, but you may find some articles of interest to you.

If you like Sarah’s style, contact her at sarah(at)leavingdark.com if you need a writer. Getting paid would be a good thing, too!

shanti!

St. Theresa’s Prayer

by L. Valdez Karl

I wanted to share a prayer that was at the end of an email a yoga student sent me. She has had a hard life and she sent me an email thanking me for being there for her. I was embarrassed because I am not used to the kind words that the student wrote, but it always does my heart good to know that yoga brings peace to someone’s soul.

This prayer touched me even though I am not Christian — I’m a very lapsed Lutheran turned Buddhist. I don’t know who St. Theresa is and I barely know the names of the important angels, but that’s not really important, is it?

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God (the Universe) that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use these gifts that you have received,
and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content.
You are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love.
It is there for each and everyone of us.

Peace and buddhahood are there for each and every one of us.

Another yoga student who has been with me for more than a few months told me today how yoga has helped her depression — she is only 24 and she takes care of an autistic brother. She said that her brother will always be autistic, but she does not always have to be depressed. Yoga has helped her take control, and she has realized what the Wise-Ass Buddhist said: “life sucks, but suffering is optional.” She told me very excitedly that “yoga and meditation are ways to self-heal! if only more people knew that!” Yes, if only!

I love it when some of my younger yoga students — I teach at a community college and the age range is 18-25 — totally connect to yoga and they keep coming back semester after semester. When my students tell me about how good they feel after a class, or how yoga affects their lives off the mat, I tell them that they’ve created all that by themselves, I am merely the yoga facilitator. They are their own gurus.

Does this old hippie chick’s heart good…

wishing you all peaceful hearts.

"scared sacred"

by L. Valdez Karl

From the YouTube website: “”If ordinary human beings can see their own suffering then perhaps they become aware of the suffering of others.” Scared Sacred website.

Why is it that so many people who call themselves or their beliefs “sacred” scare so many people in the name of “sacredness”?

The film opens in Bhopal, India, the site of the Union Carbide disaster, and the filmmaker travels to places such as Bosnia, Afganistan, Cambodia, and New York City post-9/11, to explore the Ground Zeros where the sacred is still inside the scared, inside the hearts of the people. Even in the worst places, there is still hope.

It is a very powerful trailer, and I can only imagine the power of the entire movie. I am buying the DVD. If you see this movie, please leave your comments.

“breathe in suffering. breathe out compassion.”

OM MANI PADME HUM

do you want enlightenment with that?

by L. Valdez Karl


Mass Producing Meditators

In this episode of Buddhist Geeks, Vince talks with Theo Horesh and Duff McDuffee, two SN Goenka practitioners. They discuss the effects of what can be called the mass production of meditators. They also explore the differences in using a single technique or multiple techniques for realization.

You can listen to Part 1 in my post here.

Theo and Duff raise some good questions in this interview. I thought it was interesting when they compared Goenka’s approach to that of a fast food franchise or Henry Ford’s production line. The interviewer compared the vipassana technique to what he heard Bikram say about how he styled his yoga on the McDonald’s model of fast food production.

While I’m not a vipassana junkie, I believe that a committed yoga teacher who is walking the spiritual path, regardless of tradition, should do at least one vipassana retreat. You will explore places of yourself that you have never explored before! I have only done one 10 day retreat, but I plan to do at least one retreat a year, even if it is only a three day one.

In October I am starting Spirit Rock’s Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation training. I am committed to this program until 2009. I am very excited because this training is the first of its kind, a ground-breaking program that incorporates classical yoga and Buddhism. From the website:

…an experiential grounding in an integrated yoga and vipassana practice that can nourish practitioners in their daily lives; a solid understanding of the entwined history, philosophy, and techniques of both yoga and Buddhism; and the foundational skills and understanding necessary to practice yoga–and for teachers to teach it–in a way that embodies and facilitates a deep understanding of core Buddhist principles such as mindfulness, lovingkindness, compassion, equanimity, and the interdependence of all life.

According to the website, “a good portion of the retreats will be spent in silence, following a full schedule of seated and walking meditation. The daily schedule will also include approximately 2.5 to 3 hours of yoga asana and pranayama.” Can’t wait!

What is so exciting about this program is the chance to study with the “biggies” of the Western Buddhist and yoga world such as Jack Kornfield, Phillip Moffit, Tias Little, Stephen Cope, Judith Lassater, Jill Satterfield, and even Dr. Dean Ornish, among others.

This is the type of program that I have been looking for as long as I’ve been a student/teacher, and when I read about it, I jumped on it immediately, no hesitation. I am honored and grateful to be accepted into this training.

shanti!