Tyagaraja

Card of the Fool representing supreme unexpected God Consciousness. Note how the colors make a huge impression of the meaning of this card. The Fool has all his chakras on his coat fully awakened.

The Test of the Card of the Fool

With the orange glow of the setting sun we start our nightly journey into the city of Mumbai.  With no way of knowing which path will unfold how can anyone make accurate decisions in life?  In the face of lost time and history I constantly stare.  Like a reflection in water my past swims behind me… Will it become a reflection of the spinning wheel?  Or will the ever new blossom of the unexpected illuminate my destiny?  The Card of the Fool!  Everything you thought your life to be; it will be not.  As in our last meeting I am a wander in a lost space and time.  The rattling of the south bound train is an image of my own intellect.  My creative ideas smashing heavily against the steel and rugged ground of my heart.  If this train had wings it would take flight in the direction of this unfolded destiny.  How foolish it feels to search for something that continues to elude me—time and time again it comes within my so called grasp, only to slip through the fingertips of the Fool.  The Fool is shining with illustrious Jewels sparkling in their brilliant manner.  He dances on the top of the mountain with his satchel of secrets wrapped in a bag hanging from a stick.  The Brilliant Yellow Light of Undying Consciousness blazes from behind his figure aiding in our inability to understand the intangible.  Without continuing this Labor of Sorrow and Confusion—what is there left to do?  What is there left to trust in?  The assurance that my heart is rhythmically beating?  The Sun will soon set and darkness carry us into a new dawn?  The certainty is that life will carry on and we have no choice but to carry on with it.  What we choose to believe or not believe is not the decider of our fate.  Our fate exists even without the personification of our ideas.  For I have had a great many and still I am ever tested by the Card of the Fool…

Cave temple in Pune India, click pic to read more about our tour in India

Let’s be honest, putting something together like Free Press Summer Fest is a huge undertaking.  Things aren’t made any easier if people jack you of your most prized possessions in the process.  Yes, this self proclaimed yogi has prized possessions and attachments.  Many people connected with me at that time to give support and lend some help.  Cactus Music even helped getting in the twitter game to bring them back to me.  I’m still not over it.  One year ago I lost my most precious musings.  3 full notebooks spanning over 8-10 years of my life… things I have written down from my teachers mouth, and priceless images of my travels in India.  Completely irreplaceable memories and some of my best lifelong writings.  There are no copies.  People told me there was a deeper meaning and that all that work was still inside me.  I responded to that in an earlier blog here: Dealing with Loss.  So Summer Fest in Houston Texas is now attached with these feelings for me.   We will be performing the festival again this year and I’ll have to dedicate a portion to my books. I am still hoping and praying that whom ever stole my precious books has been living with them, reading them and somehow reads this blog and decides that the best thing to do is bring them back to me.  If you have any information about where they may be, call a brotha…

Get Summer Fest tickets if you dare here:   Summer Fest Tickets

For now I’ll turn you to a poem I wrote while in India this last time around.  It’s more like a love letter to my books I suppose.  Sorry it’s a bit dim, that’s what blogs are about sometimes I suppose… a cry out…

My Darlings

I miss you my darlings.

Your words stay in my heart but your faces don’t show themselves long enough for me to make any sense of it all…  Will I ever remember those thousands of precious words?  Those beautiful words and their limitless meanings and potential.  I hold them so dear.  Are they within me?  Or are they in limbo lost in the dancing space?

I hear some songs ringing clearly reminding me of those precious experiences and awakenings.  Some tunes never come to mind they were never meant to be I suppose… Locked in a vault of the stolen prison of my mind on paper.  My hand transcends the message and the words lived and breathed the manifestation of my body.  Those soft pages held the fragrance of my soul.

The Books as a whole represent the legacy of my life.  Where are you my darlings??? I will forever be in search for you…

two of my precious babies, and the rare mercury sri chakra murti I found in India

starting over...

We'll be in the wooded area again this year trying to give some free yoga lessons and what not, maybe you could bring my books back to me...

What the heart wants we follow.  What the heart wants we sometimes suppress.  What the heart cannot contain my emotions explode.  I live to sing.  There is absolutely no way to cease the intense flow of feelings pouring from the ocean of my heart.  The river of vibrations is what connects our heart to heart.  My service is to sing.  If my voice is silenced my heart will stop, my service will cease, and there is no longer reason to live.  Where is that flower that blossoms in the hearts of those receiving my service?  Without this flower’s fragrance life again has no purpose.  The thirst of this flower’s nectar will never see satisfaction.  The processing of energy within my soul is an endless vessel.  The art of creation enters the vessel and the service of expression and love exudes.  Without presence of those who receive my service, my expression and love falls like a lone tree in a forest with no witness to experience its return to the earth.  It then evaporates into space as well as my lone purpose.  Melodramatic and exaggerated?  Either way my heart wants what it wants, and I am a helpless servant to my heart’s deepest desire.  I will follow with every breath, and every movement of my body, until that inevitable day comes when my breath and movement leave me and my soul returns to the Source… and still within the Source Itself my heart will sing the praise of energy passing through the Eternal Vessel!

Meditating along the Ganga River in Rishikesh India during India Tour 2011/2012

I will now set the scene.  I’m leaving Sugarland Texas for Downtown Houston as the Sun is setting with its brilliant Orange glow.  The cloud of smoke from the devastating wild fires of Bastrop Tx stretch across the western landscape.  I feel the suffering of the trees, wildlife and the people forced from their homes and their possessions destroyed.  The suffering of the trees fills the air, and I breathe it in.  I breathe out a blanket of love covering the wounds of the Earth.  Earth is here like a Mother wanting only to serve the purity and perfection it keeps in balance.  Human beings are exploiting Her, and devouring and destroying Her gracious love, and Her need to serve Us in the best way She can.  I feel the suffering of the World.  I tune my ears to the information coming from the radio, story after story of death, war, corruption and immense suffering.  We spend most of our time on Earth suffering.  I breathe in and out.  I tune the rhythm of my love to the pain and suffering felt by all of the World.  As I finish off the 59N stretch and exit 288 to leave our beloved place in 3rd Ward behind forever, I have this deep conversation with the suffering and the love of the World.  It causes me to want to call my Mom.  It allows me to realize that a Mother’s sole purpose is to relieve the suffering of Her child.  I want to tell my Mother this… how she relieves my suffering and gave so much care and attention to the development of the being She created.  Care and attention relieves suffering, and that’s why I suppose I called my Mother.  I wanted Her to relieve the Suffering of the World.

more on this topic soon…

I pray for the suffering of the World. You can literally tune with and call upon the forces of nature during meditations and prayer.

Utkatasana

Pose: Utkatasana Vinyasa Krama (Step by Step Sequence)

Stand straight with feet 3-6 inches apart.  Inhale raise arms over head stretching from the web of the thumb as the hips shift forward.  Exhale as hips shift back, bend the knees while bringing the arms down halfway.  Flex the legs and root the feet into the ground.  To come out of the pose, inhale, raise the arms overhead first with the back completely straight, then push into the feet to straighten the legs coming up to standing.  Exhale arms down.  (Repeat 5 times).  On the last repetition stay in the squat for as long as you can breathing normally.  Come out of the pose in the same way.

Benefits:

This is one of the most important Asanas.  Strengthens the core of the body; most importantly strengthening the legs and hips. Performing this pose daily will give strength and energy to the entire body.  When we exercise the hips a positive growth hormone is released that promotes good health of the entire body.  Mentally this Asana produces confidence and makes the sadhaka like a strong pillar never wavering on any task.

Cautions:

Only squat as far as you can.  Even a subtle movement can produces positive results.  It’s all about function on form.  If you can’t see your toes over your knees your knees are too far over creating sheer stress on the feet, ankles and lower back.  Most sadhakas can place a wooden blog or a rolled up towel under the heals to create a plank under the feet.  This will help keep the form while deepening the squat.

Bhujangasana

Counter Pose:  Bhujangasana Vinyasa Krama (Step by Step Sequence)

Lay down flat on the stomach with the spine straight and the legs passive.  Bring the hands near the rib cage palms down fingers pointed toward the head, forehead on the ground, elbows in.  Inhale, pull with the palms lifting the upper body half way. Exhale lift the hands off the ground maintaining the half arch in the upper back.  Inhale press the palms back into the round as you lift the body and arch the spine.  Repeat 5 times.  On the 5th repetition stay in the pose breathing gently.  To come out of the pose exhale and lower the body to the ground with the arms keeping the elbows in.

Benefits:

Strengthens spine, arms and muscles in the back. Draws creativity energy to the body that brings confidence to the spirit. Opens and expands the chest freeing the heart. Good for those suffering from Thoracic and low back pain, including nerve damage. And many, many other things.  As a counter pose for the squat it is good to release pressure from the feet and ankles as the feet are pressed into the ground in a different direction than when standing.  Also this pose relieves tension in the back and spine.  Childs pose after bhujangasana would be a wonderful complete practice for the day.

Cautions:

Bhujangasana is one of the safest asanas.  Don’t perform when pregnant.  Only push the body up as far as you can, don’t strain or hold the breath.